
Copyright © 2022 American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists
118 AATCC TM61-2013e2(2020) AATCC Manual of International Test Methods and Procedures/2023
mal cycle, which has an exhaust tempera-
ture of 60-71°C (140-160°F), or air dry.
7.9 Allow specimens to condition at 65
± 5% relative humidity and 21 ± 2°C (70
± 4°F) for 1 h before evaluating.
7.10 Prepare tested fabric specimens
and adjacent fabrics for evaluation by
trimming off raveled yarns and lightly
brushing off any loose fiber and yarn on
the fabric surfaces. Brush pile fabric
specimens in required direction to restore
them as nearly as possible to the same
pile angle as the untreated specimens.
Specimens should be smoothed or flat-
tened if they are wrinkled and messy due
to washing and/or drying. Specimens
may be mounted on cards to facilitate
identification and handling in their evalu-
ation. For consistency in backing mate-
rial, use a white mounting card with Y
tristimulus value of at least 85%. Mount-
ing material must not be visible in the
area to be viewed and must not interfere
with rating as specified in 5.1 of both
AATCC EP1 and AATCC EP2 for the
Gray Scale for Color Change and Gray
Scale for Staining or instrumental assess-
ment of color according to AATCC EP7,
Instrumental Assessment of the Change
in Color of a Test Specimen (see 12.4).
7.10.1 Yarn skein specimens should be
combed and brushed for improved align-
ment of the yarns before comparison with
the unwashed original. The original spec-
imens may also need further combing and
brushing for uniformity of appearance.
8. Evaluation (see 12.16)
8.1 Evaluation of color change.
8.1.1 Evaluate the color change of the
test specimens by comparison with the
Gray Scale for Color Change (AATCC
EP1), or using AATCC EP7, Instrumental
Assessment of the Change in Color of a
Test Specimen, and record the numerical
rating that corresponds to the appropriate
one on the Gray Scale. For improved pre-
cision and accuracy the specimens should
be rated by more than one rater.
8.2 Evaluation of staining.
8.2.1 Evaluate staining (see 12.10) by
comparison with the Gray Scale for
Staining (AATCC EP2), the AATCC 9-
Step Chromatic Transference Scale
(AATCC EP8), or Instrumental Assess-
ment of Degree of Staining (AATCC
EP12), and record the numerical rating
that corresponds to the appropriate one
on either of them. The scale used should be
indicated when reporting the test results.
8.2.2 The color transferred to the multi-
fiber test fabric or bleached cotton test
fabric square of 6.4.1 can be quantita-
tively determined by measuring the color
difference between a piece of the original
material and the stained material. Multifi-
ber test fabrics (15 mm [0.6 in.]) have fill-
ing bands of sufficient width to be within
the aperture diameter capability of many
colorimeters and spectrophotometers (see
AATCC EP6, Instrumental Color Mea-
surement and 12.14).
9. Interpretation of Results
9.1 Results from these tests are in-
tended to approximate the color change
effects (see 1.1) of five typical home
launderings. These are accelerated tests,
and in obtaining the required degree of
acceleration some of the conditions, such
as temperature, were purposely exagger-
ated. The tests have remained largely the
same over many years while laundry de-
tergents, washers and dryers, laundry
practices and fabrics have changed (see
AATCC LP1.
9.2 Test No. 1A—This test is for evalu-
ating the colorfastness of textiles that are
expected to withstand repeated hand
laundering at low temperature. Speci-
mens subjected to this test should show
color change similar to that produced by
five typical careful hand launderings at a
temperature of 40 ± 3°C (105 ± 5°F).
9.3 Test No. 1B—This test is for evalu-
ating the colorfastness of textiles that are
expected to withstand repeated hand
laundering at cool temperatures. Speci-
mens subjected to this test should show
color change similar to that produced by
five typical careful hand launderings at a
temperature of 27 ± 3°C (80 ± 5°F).
9.4 Test No. 2A—This test is for eval-
uating the colorfastness to washing of
textiles that are expected to withstand re-
peated low temperature machine launder-
ing in the home. Specimens subjected to
this test should show color change similar
to that produced by five home machine
launderings at medium or warm setting in
the temperature range of 38 ± 3°C (100 ±
5°F).
9.5 Test No. 3A—This test is for evalu-
ating colorfastness to washing of textiles
considered washable under vigorous con-
ditions. Specimens subjected to this test
should show color change similar to that
produced by five home machine launder-
ings at 60 ± 3°C (140 ± 5°F), without
chlorine.
9.6 Test No. 4A—This test is for evalu-
ating the colorfastness to washing of tex-
tiles laundered in the presence of avail-
able chlorine. Specimens subjected to
this test should show color change similar
to that produced by five home machine
launderings at 63 ± 3°C (145 ± 5°F) with
3.74 g per L (0.50 oz/gal) of 5% available
chlorine per 3.6 kg (8.0 lb) load.
9.7 Test No. 5A—This test is for eval-
uating the colorfastness to washing of
textiles that may be laundered in the pres-
ence of available chlorine. Specimens
subjected to this test should show color
change similar to that produced by five
home machine launderings at 49 ± 3°C
(120 ± 5°F) with 200 ± 1 ppm available
chlorine.
10. Report
10.1 Report the test number.
10.2 Report the grade number deter-
mined for color change in 8.1 and the
staining grade numbers for the evaluated
fibers in the multifiber test fabric and/or
bleached cotton test fabric as determined
in 8.2.
10.3 State which scale (Gray Scale for
Staining or AATCC 9-Step Chromatic
Transference Scale) was used in evaluat-
ing staining (see 12.12).
10.4 Report the multifiber test fabric
used and if bleached cotton test fabric
was employed to avoid knit curling.
10.5 Report the detergent used with color
change and staining results (see 12.6).
10.6 Report which laundering ma-
chine is used.
11. Precision and Bias (see 12.15)
11.1 Precision and bias statements
have been developed for Tests No. 2A
and 5A. Although correlation work has
been done, no precision and bias state-
ments have been developed for Tests No.
1A, 3A and 4A.
11.1.1 Because of changes in the deter-
gents used in this method, these precision
and bias statements may not apply to data
or information obtained with the cur-
rently available detergents.
11.2 Test No. 2A.
11.2.1 Summary. An interlaboratory
test was carried out in May 1985 to estab-
lish the precision of Test No. 2A. A part
of the test was to determine if the wider
15 mm (0.6 in.) No. 10A multifiber test
fabric could be substituted for the 8 mm
(0.33 in.) wide No. 10. The complete test
consisted of six laboratories evaluating
10 materials in duplicate by one operator
using Test No. 2A.
11.2.2 Color Change. Three raters
from six laboratories independently eval-
uated nine materials in duplicate using
the Gray Scale for Color Change. The
components of variance as standard devi-
ations of the colorfastness grades (aver-
ages of variances for No. 10 and No. 10A
multifiber test fabrics) were calculated as
follows:
Single-Operator
Component 0.29
Within-Laboratory
Component 0.29
Between-Laboratory
Component 0.29
11.2.3 Critical Differences. For the
components of variance reported in
11.2.2, two averages of observed values
should be considered significantly differ-
ent at the 95% probability level if the dif-
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