Abstract
The thermal bonding PET fabrics were produced through high temperature steaming (HTS) of low melting PET yarn as warp and composite fancy yarn containing low melting PET yarn as weft. The low melting PET yarn of sheath-core structure consisted of a regular PET in core portion and low melting PET in sheath portion. The composite fancy yarn consisted of regular PET yarn as inner part and effect part and low melting PET yarn as binding part. This study was carried out to investigate the melting behavior of thermal bonded PET fabric, the effect of HTS on the thermal bonding, mechanical properties, and dyeing properties. The melting peak of low melting PET yarn showed two melting peaks caused by sheath-core structure. Almost the entire thermal bonding of the fancy PET fabrics containing low melting PET yarn has formed at $200^{\circ}C{\times}3min$ of HTS. The tensile strength in warp and weft direction of the fancy PET fabrics slightly decreased as temperature of HTS increased. The total K/S value of the fancy PET fabrics decreased slightly to $180^{\circ}C{\times}3min$ of HTS, while increased slightly above $200^{\circ}C{\times}3min$ of HTS. The changes in the hue angle ($H^{\circ}$) of the thermal bonded fancy PET fabrics dyed with disperse dyes hardly ever happened.