A prototype of the Comfort Meter, which indicates the number of coarse fibres protruding from a fabric’s surface, will be displayed and demonstrated at the Sheep CRC’s Wool Worms and Wrinkles Workshop on Thursday November 12 at the Guyra Bowling Club, 1pm–5 pm.

David Tester, Sheep CRC’s Wool Program Leader, expects that when it’s finalised and in use by industry, the Comfort Meter will influence decisions along the wool supply chain.

Research to develop the Comfort Meter is supported by Australian Wool Innovation as a key Sheep CRC Participant.

“The use of a tool like this is important as the market for casual, next-to-skin garments continues to grow, and wool needs to be in this market segment.

“The Comfort Meter will allow fabric and garment makers to indicate the relative comfort of their cloth to consumers, and it will also allow processors to set wool purchasing and processing specifications to ensure they produce fabrics that meet comfort targets.”

He explains that measuring the relative comfort of various cloths until now has been expensive, complex and involved time-consuming wearer trials.

“We have put numerous fabrics through our Comfort Meter prototypes to obtain measures of comfort; we’ve then corroborated these with actual wearer trials in a range of situations and environments – ranging from work-wear in sub-tropical climates to office-clothing in a city.

“This work shows the Comfort Meter is on track – it does indicate how next-to-skin comfortable a cloth is.”

David, formerly General Manager (Manufacturing) with Macquarie Textiles, says a balance between price and comfort can be found.

“The wool garment market is price sensitive, and the answer to comfort is not as simple as using finer wool - we need to help processors understand how to produce garments that are both comfortable and affordable if we are to crack the next-to-skin marketplace.”

•To attend the Wool Worms and Wrinkles Workshop, please RSVP by Monday November 9 to Deb Maxwell, on 02 6779 4262 (leave you’re your name and phone number), or email: training@sheepcrc.org.au