Nowadays, you can find several viruses and microorganisms that can be harmful to different products and even the human beings around it. With the increase in pollution, some new harmful organisms can damage the product. There are industries performing some strict quality checks to prevent the product from infections of harmful microorganisms. There are several international institutes all across the globe that are working to come up with some of the best quality testing methods which can evaluate the fabric and can give us results that can be quantitative and calculated easily.
Some Antimicrobial agents act as an additive to the textile, which provides resistance to the microorganisms and protects the fiber from the various infections caused by multiple organisms. To check the properties of the material, some test is conducted, and one of them is the AATCC 100 test method used to evaluate the antibacterial properties of bacteria of textile. There are some of the alternatives of tests as well, but it has come up to the industry’s standards and gave the most precise results.
Scope of the AATC 100 test
AATC 100 is a quantitative evaluation testing method of antimicrobial on the fabric. They test the antimicrobial activity of the testing material. It assesses the antibacterial on the textile material, which is determined by the degree of antibacterial activity used in the various textiles. To properly understand the inhibition and implementation of a bacteriostatic activity or bactericidal activity, quantitative evaluation is necessary.
Importance of the AATC 100 test for textile
The AATC 100 test Method is an industry-standard method to test the efficacy of antimicrobial textiles. It ensures continuity in approaches and replicability of results. This test is easily modified to be used for antiviral efficacy testing. This test is so designed to perform the quantitative examination of fabrics and textiles’ ability to prevent the growth of harmful microorganisms or even kill them once the material comes in touch over a 24-hour point of contact.
This test is conducted against some of the harmful microorganisms, such as Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumonia, which can be very dangerous to the fabric. While performing this test, several antimicrobial textiles are also tested, which work to prevent infections by killing contaminants on the material. This antimicrobial can be MRSA, Pseudomonas aeruginosa Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), Salmonella, etc.
Procedure to conduct this AATC 100 test on textile
Before starting the AATC 100 test on the textile, the companies take the sample, which has to be tested. There are different sample sizes taken, like 48 x 48 mm square or 4 x 48 mm diameter circles. These samples then undergo the testing process. Some companies test the fabrics before washing and after washing the material to evaluate the existence of the textile’s antimicrobial efficacy.
This AATCC 100 test method consists of six different vital stages: preparation of samples, sterilization, vaccination, incubation, washing/shaking out, and counting. Usually, the antimicrobial agent is woven into the textile as a thread or applied to the textile surface as a liquid, but testing is critical to ensure performance. While washing the material with washing detergent or laundering, which results in the primary source of fabric degradation, so many companies test often request standardized laundering before AATCC 100 tests.
- Initially, the sample is prepared by a growing number of Microorganisms on the fabric while keeping it in liquid or weaving the thread into the fabric.
- After putting the microorganism in the fabric, it is standardized and diluted in sterile nutritive solutions.
- Then comes the inoculation process, where only microbial touches the material.
- After testing the fabric, it may take around eight to ten-day to get the results out whenever any fabric undergoes testing.
- After this, the sample is washed and shaken in 100 mL neutralizing solution for at least 1 min.
- At last, the liquid is rinsed out, and the untreated and treated sample are compared.
Advantages of conducting AATC 100 test on your textile
- The AATC 100 test is quantitative, and the results of this test are reproducible. The test results can help to determine the usage and marketing strategy of the textile.
- From this test, you can test both bacteriostatic, which are growth inhibiting property and bactericidal, which is the bacteria-killing property of the textile.
- From the number of textile testing methods, this antimicrobial fabric test has become the textile industry-standard in testing different textile fabrics.
Drawbacks of AATC 100 testing method
Although this test has been considered as the industry standard test but still this test some drawback as a full nutrient broth is used while testing, which increases the bacterial growth very vigorously, which is not possible in the real world; this test is usually carried out only once and cannot be performed repetitively when the test has completed, the results which we get are pretty vague.
Conclusion
In our surroundings, we have so many microorganisms that can be very harmful if they meet us or enter our bodies. These microorganisms are present everywhere, and if these microorganisms fall under some favorable growing conditions, they can cause some adverse effects. So, the industries need to test their textiles or fabric whether they are protected from all these harmful microorganisms by using the AATC 100 testing method, which came from the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists who provided the test method, quality control methods and are working on various textiles across the world. They have developed this test to ensure good product quality.
