Abstract: This study investigated the elastic elongation and elastic recovery of the elastic warp knitted fabric made of polyethylene terephthalate(PET) and polybutylene terephthalate(PBT) filament. The effect of knitting parameter on the elasticity of PBT/PET warp knitted fabric was analyzed in part I. In this paper, the influence of dyeing and heat setting on elasticity was further exploited. It was noted that the elastic elongation is increased after dyeing process due to further fabric shrinkage during this heat and moisture treatment. But, heat setting process had an adverse effect on the elastic elongation. The optimum finishing condition was extracted that dyeing temperature was 130 ℃ for 30 min, and heat setting at 145℃ for 40 s without stretch. The final fabric had 131.66 mm elongation at weft direction, and 105.09 mm at warp direction under 100 N tensions. The recovery is 83.39% at weft direction and 79.35% at warp direction at 30% extension for 5 cycles stretch. There are 3.5 N at 30% extension at weft direction, and 8N at warp direction.

Key words: PBT; warp knitted fabric; dyeing; heat setting; elastic elongation; elastic recovery