Design and performance research on the automatic sweat-treating fabrics used for ski suits

Skiers sweat a lot during training, and the sweat will create a wet-cold type environment between the ski suit and the athlete, reducing the wearer’s comfort. In this study, high hygroscopic materials and hydrophobic functional particles were integrated onto the inner fabric of the ski suit by dipping, scraping, spraying and other methods. A kind of fabric with automatic sweat-treating function used for ski suits was developed and the sweat-guiding, sweat-absorbing, sweat-holding, breathing and thermal insulation properties of the samples were tested by using a liquid guiding performance tester, a water content tester, an infrared thermal imager, a thermal plate, an air permeability tester, a moisture permeability tester and other equipment. The results show that the method of changing the hydrophobic properties of different areas of fabric surface and combining and distributing fabrics with different absorbing properties can be used actively to guide the flow direction of sweat on the fabric surface. The samples designed in this study can effectively delay the time for the ski suits to enter the wet-cold type state. Treated samples can effectively protect the insulation layer from being affected by sweat and steam. Before and after sweat absorption, the temperature of the insulation layer of treated samples changes relatively slowly compared with the control group. After finishing, the breathability of the sample decreased, while it still had a good breathability. In conclusion, the automatic sweat-treating fabric developed in this study has good sweat-treating performance.