Hi Everybody,
This is Gabriel of HItena USA.
Color fastness is very important property of rod wrapping thread. Nobody will want masterwork of custom rod or even factory-made rod lose its original wrap color. At the same time, however, color fastness has been in question most of the time because it was not easy to know how long original color holds with time. We rather relied on experience for this, which can take at least a couple of seasons or more and still vague. As a new wrapping thread producer, we theoretically knew STWRAP’s color fastness is superior but no way to prove it since our sample was out just a couple of months ago. So, we asked 3rd party certified independent inspector to test color fastness of STWRAP under ISO standard and finally got the result yesterday after a month’s waiting.
Test result
Exposure_____STWRAP (Blue)_________Other brand (Blue)
50h__________4.5___________________4.5
100h_________4.5___________________4.5
200h_________4.5___________________3
300h_________4.5___________________2
360h_________4.5___________________1.5
* Wavelength : UV-A (300~400 nm)
STWRAP test result was in line with our expectation and perfect with grade 4.5 (practically the best grade we can get) out of 5 holding for 360 hrs of UV-A exposure which is equivalent to 4 calendar years if you go fishing every Saturdays and Sundays in Florida. It doesn’t mean STWRAP color fades after that – we just stopped testing when it was proved STWRAP holds at least 4 equivalent years while the other company’s thread which was put on test together for comparison changed to unacceptable level (grade 3) at somewhere between 1 and 2 years and lowest level later. We still never know when STWRAP’s color will fade but from the data trend, we guess it won’t change for considerably prolonged time after 4 years - that might be 6 years or 10 years or even more.
Color fastness has been the weakest part of nylon thread and even Gudebrod was unable to get over this issue though other properties of their products were excellent. This also gave some reason for wrapping thread producers to go for polyester giving up all excellent characteristics of nylon. Now STWRAP reached highest level of color fastness with 100% nylon thread. STWRAP will keep your artwork shine over time.
When it comes to technical aspects, lab test was performed under textile industry’s standard test method of ISO 105-A02 Textiles – Tests for Color Fastness and AATCC (American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists) Procedure 1. Samples were exposed under Xenon-Arc-Lamp at 300~400 nm wavelength (UV-A). Color scale changes are graded to 9 stages from 1 to 5 where A grade of 5 is given only when there is no perceived difference in color or contrast between the original and the tested specimen. When this grade goes below 4, it is usually considered not acceptable.
Since I cannot attach original lab test result here, I posted the same one on our homepage blog [
www.hitenausa.com] with gray scale photo and links so you can see details or download if you are further interested.
Thanks.
Gabriel Hwang
Hitena USA LLC
gabriel@hitenausa.com
[
www.hitenausa.com]
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2017 06:06PM by Hitena USA.
