STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS ON THE RELAXATION CHARACTERISTICS OF A KNITTED MATERIAL COVER FOR STUMPS

Abstract

The war in Ukraine has changed the vector of scientific research in the field of knitwear production due to the need for domestic samples of knitted materials and medical devices. In particular, due to the large number of people with mine-blast injuries to their limbs that led to amputation over the past three years, not only among military personnel but also among the civilian population, there is a need to develop domestic functional knitwear materials for the manufacture of stump covers. During rehabilitation and prosthetic preparation, medical textiles for the care of an amputated limb in the postoperative period play an important role in effectively correcting stump formation. Pre-prosthetic rehabilitation includes compression therapy, scar massage, stump hygiene, and phantom pain relief. Compression therapy is provided through knitted materials and products of a given shape with compression properties. During the research, a structure of a tubular knitted material with an elastomeric yarn arrangement in the soil structure was developed in the form of a tuck stitch and float stitch with a 1+1 and 1+3 laying report. The prototypes were produced on a class 13 round hosiery machine with a cylinder diameter of 3.75 inches. In the knitting process, the elastomeric thread’s tension was changed by changing the speed of the elastomeric thread feeding into the soil structure. At the same time, the knitting density was changed vertically at three levels. The nature of the soil knitting density effect under the condition of a constant elastomeric yarn feed rate on the deformation characteristics of knitted fabric was revealed. It has been found that under continuous knitting density, the elastomeric yarn’s feed rate does not significantly affect the deformation characteristics of knitwear. Due to the introduction of an elastomeric yarn into the knitted material’s structure, the residual deformation level is no more than 4 %, indicating a sufficient level of form stability under the influence of operational loads.