Why Do Fabric Conditioners Reduce Static In Clothes?
The build up of static in clothes is caused by fibre to fibre friction, fibre to air friction and fibre to person friction ! Static is much worse in man made fibres than in natural fibres, plus the more humid the atmoshpere, the more static builds up. Natural fibres absorb a great deal of moisture at a given humidity, which is why we talk of these fibres ‘breathing’. Man made fibres have a low moisture absorption level and so static builds up. Fabric conditioners on the other hand actually coat the surface of clothes with a coating which means that the electirical resistance on the surface of the fibres is reduced and therefore the static build up is minimised. The fabric conditioner also acts as a means whereby the positive charge which also aids static build up is drawn out of the cloth fibres, again reducing the build up of static.
