group of related mechanical properties that can be separately measured the properties of interest here are bending properties specifically stiffness for example as a measure of the bag 39 s ability to maintain a free tumbling volume and surface properties specifically friction or slickness for example as a measure of the bag 39 s ability to resist buckling due to the trapping of articles inside the bag the kawabata system uses a set of four highly specialized custom developed measuring devices these devices are as follows kes fb 1 through 3 are manufactured by the kato iron works co ltd div of instrumentation kyoto japan kes fb 4 kawabata surface tester is manufactured by the kato tekko co ltd div of instrumentation kyoto japan the results reported herein required the use of kes fb1 and fb 3 for the testing relating to the characteristics of compressibility pliability and drape described herein only kawabata system parameters relating to the properties of compression bending and shearing stiffness were used the complete kawabata evaluation system is installed and is available for fabric evaluations at several locations throughout the world including the following institutions in the u s a additional sites world wide include the textile technology center sainte hyacinthe qc canada the swedish institute for fiber and polymer research m u00f6lndal sweden and the university of manchester institute of science and technology manchester england the kawabata evaluation system installed at the textile testing laboratory at the milliken research corporation spartanburg s c was used to generate the numerical values reported herein a 20 cm u00d7 20 cm sample was cut from the web of fabric to be tested care was taken to avoid folding wrinkling stressing or otherwise handling the sample in a way that would deform the sample.