Description

The weight of a fabric can be expressed in two ways, either as the ‘weight per unit area’ or the ‘weight per unit length’; the former is self explanatory but the latter requires a little explanation because the weight of a unit length of fabric will obviously be affected by its width. In woven fabric, the weight per unit length is usually referred to as the ‘weight per running yard’. It is necessary therefore to know the agreed standard width upon which the weight per running yard is based. Usually this width depends upon the width of loom. Before coming the term ‘GSM’ there was another term called ‘lb/100 yards’. This expression is used by British Standard. For measuring this there are a template and a quadrant balance. The template area is 1/100 square yards of which each arm is 1/10 yards in length. For measuring GSM, a GSM cutter is used to cut the fabric and weight is taken in balance. Both of these measurement and method is equally used for both woven and knitted fabrics.