During the fibre bending-abrasion test, the fibre sample is cycled back and forth over a wire or thin pin under given tension and defined angle, e.g. 90°. In this test, the number of cycles up to fibre breakage is the measured variable. Concerning fibres for apparel textiles, the test provides a measure for the tendency to pilling of the woven or knitted fabric. The smaller the cycle number to break occurrence, the lower is the tendency to pilling, since the pills that develop during textile wear would be shed within a short period. With this test, for example, Polyester fibres that show little or no pilling have a life span of less than 1000 load cycles, whereas fibres with poor pilling characteristics can reach up to 100 000 cycles.

The opposite is desired for fibres used for carpets. Fibres for carpet piles must be highly resistant to bending stresses. In order to avoid premature breakage during heavy wear of the carpet.

The bending-abrasion test is also suitable for staple fibre yarns. Concerning the stability of their structure or resistance to stress during subsequent processing. E.g. for warp yarn in weaving. With flax fibres, the fibres increasingly divide into small single fibrils when subjected to the bending-abrasion test,  which provides information concerning processing properties.

Finally, in the area of hair care products, conclusions can be drawn regarding the influence of the treatment media concerning hair characteristics, such as elasticity or brittleness, by subjecting the
treated human hair to the bending-abrasion test and analysing the results.

The FIBRESTRESS device measures how synthetic or natural fibres, yarns, or hairs respond to friction and bending. It helps predict fibre pilling, wear resistance, and the durability of human hair during combing.

Groups of 25 samples are simultaneously tested to considerably increase the testing efficiency.