A new friction measurement system for the frictional component of touch

Abstract The look and feel of fabrics, soft furnishings and consumer products are of tremendous importance to their commercial success. There is currently considerable interest to develop ways to improve the measurement of these factors. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, there is a need to provide information that so that attractive, desirable products can be designed. There is also a perceived need for quality control procedures to help provide consistency of products and to measure the degradation of feel with time. One of the critical parameter that is important with respect to the sensory feel of materials is friction. This paper describes the design, construction and use of a novel friction measurement system that can be used to evaluate the frictional feel of materials. The system has been designed so that it is very cost effective to manufacture, and provides all the necessary information about contact forces and position of contact. Experiments are normally conducted by stroking the fabrics or materials under test in a natural way using one or more fingers; provision has also been made for carrying out experiments with an artificial finger. The use of the soft friction system is demonstrated by reference to the results of preliminary experiments on the finger-tip-surface frictional behaviour for a series of thermoplastic elastomers and other materials that clearly show how the test system discriminates between them.