Moisture Management Test

Whether the moisture moving fabrics we quote differ in how fast liquid is transported away from the inner surface, how widely it spreads, and how fast the specimen loses that moisture afterwards. Test method: to be confirmed with the laboratory, and one method has to be applied to every specimen. Conditions required for a comparison to mean anything: the fabric composition and weight per unit area; the fabric lot, since two lots of the same fabric can differ; the specimen size, orientation and number of specimens; whether the specimen is tested face up or face down and which side is the contact surface; the type, volume and starting condition of the test fluid; the ambient conditions and humidity in the laboratory; the elapsed time intervals at which readings are taken; and the equipment and calibration status. Where any of these differ, the result describes the test setup rather than the fabric.

Almost every cold weather system that disappoints in use disappoints for the same reason: moisture cannot leave the body, so the insulation stops doing the job it was chosen to do. This is a specification the buyer pays for twice, once in the base layer fabric and again in the cost of every layer above it. It is also the specification most often decided on a supplier's adjective rather than a measurement, because unlike a tear or a seam, moisture behaviour is invisible in an incoming inspection. A comparison made under one recorded method gives a buyer a defensible reason to choose one base layer fabric over another, and a reason to reject a substitution that carries the same name but not the same behaviour.