Your building committee is meeting to select fabric for your church seating…pews, chairs or auditorium seats. You have fabric samples and everyone wants to make sure the fabric enhances the interior, matches the carpet, is soft to the touch and most of all – durable. How do you know if the fabric will last through the lifetime of the new seating? Is there fabric durability standards that you should understand ?
The fabric mills developed a fabric abrasion resistance test to provide high-level assurance that the fabric will last through the lifetime of the seating. This test is called the Wyzenbeek Test, also known as a double rub test. The double rub test measures the durability of the fabric by counting the number of double rubs a given fabric can withstand before the fabric begins showing wear. Cotton duck is stretched across a mechanical arm. It passes back and forth over the fabric being tested equaling one double rub.
Check out the video below to see the Wyzenbeek test in action.
Every fabric offered by Summit Seating is contract grade fabric, meaning every pattern meets or exceeds 15,000 double rubs. What’s interesting is that “higher double rub numbers do not necessarily indicate a significant extension of the fabric’s service lift.
“In fact, Wyzenbeek results above 100,000 double rubs have not been shown to be an indicator of increased fabric lifespan,” ACT (Association of Contract Textiles).
Fabric failures are more likely to result from physical abuse, inappropriate cleaning, lack of maintenance and inappropriate application.
Visit our fabric page to explore which fabrics will best suit your worship space. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about fabric abrasion and how it can impact the longevity and durability of your new worship seating.
