Why’s clear elastic tape used in knitted fabric rather than woven fabric?

According to the weaving method, fabric can be divided into two types: knitted fabric and woven fabric. To know why’s TPU tape used in knitted fabric rather than woven fabric, we should firstly know the difference between these two types of fabric.

1. Different structure

The smallest basic unit of knitted fabric is coil. The thread will be curled into coils one by one. At the same time, coils interact with each other. However, the smallest basic unit of woven fabric is the cross-point between warp and weft yarn. The two pieces of thread interact with an angle in 90°. The vertical yarn called warp while the horizontal yarn called weft.

2. Different feature and hand feels

Because of the different structure, these two types of fabric have different feature. Knitted fabric owns ductility. You will feel it soft and breathable when worn. On contrast, woven fabric has no ductility. The tightly weaving method makes woven fabric more starched. So this type of fabric is not as soft or breathable than knitted one.

3. Different usage scenario

Both knitted fabric and woven fabric have their special feature and advantage, which makes them used in different scenario. For example, knitted fabric usually used for T-shirt, knitwear, sweater and other clothes that needs stretch, air permeability or heat retention. But woven fabric usually used for business suit, jeans and that pays more attention on starched version.

Therefore, knitted fabric is much more easy to get out of shape than woven fabric. Thus, clothes made of knitted fabric will use elastic tape to strengthen the seam part, so that the clothes has longer life. Then it isn’t hard to know why we can see clear TPU elastic tape on shoulder part of T-shirt.