Cushion & Pillow Fibre Fill Mass, Bale Usage & Fill Cost

The formula

This is the expression the tool evaluates. Every term is named underneath, with the unit it must be supplied in.

How the result is derived

Step by step, from the values you type to the figure on screen.

1. The 9 inputs are read from the form on every keystroke: Length, Width, Depth (Loft or Gusset), Boxed (Gusseted) Cushion, Fill Density in the Cover, Overfill for Loft, Fibre Bale Mass, Pieces in the Order and Fibre Price.
2. Each value is checked against the accepted range in the input table below. A value outside its range stops the calculation rather than producing a misleading figure — the results blank out and a message appears.
3. The validated values are substituted into the expression above, which resolves Fill per Piece together with every supporting figure in one pass — no value is carried over from a previous entry.
4. The supporting outputs — Cover Volume, Fill before Overfill, Pieces per Bale, Fibre for the Order, Bales Needed, Fill Cost per Piece and Fill Cost for the Order — come from the same pass, so they always describe the same case as the headline figure.
5. Results are rounded for display only. The full-precision value is used throughout the chain, so reading a rounded intermediate figure back into the tool by hand can shift the last digit.

What each input means

Where to read each value on the floor, the unit it must be in, and the range the tool accepts.

What the tool returns

The headline figure and every supporting value it is built from.

Worked example

Substituting

Made as a 15 cm boxed cushion the same cover takes twice the fill, 601 g, and the order 8 bales.

How to use it

1. Work through the input groups in order — Cover and Fill & Order. The defaults are a realistic case, so you can change one value at a time and watch what moves.
2. There is no calculate button. Every figure recalculates as you type or drag, which is what makes this usable for a what-if sweep rather than a single answer.
3. Read Fill per Piece in the dark results panel — that is the headline figure, expressed in g.
4. Check the supporting rows underneath (Cover Volume, Fill before Overfill, Pieces per Bale, Fibre for the Order, Bales Needed, Fill Cost per Piece and Fill Cost for the Order) before acting on the headline — they are where an implausible input usually shows itself first.
5. Reset to defaults returns every field to the reference case, which is the quickest way to check whether a surprising result came from the tool or from an input you had changed earlier.

Where this is used

• Process planning — establishing Fill per Piece before a trial is booked, so machine time and material in Apparel Manufacturing & Garmenting are committed against a calculated figure rather than an estimate.
• Costing and quotation — Fill per Piece is an input to the cost sheet, and quoting from a worked number rather than a remembered one is what keeps a margin intact.
• Troubleshooting — when the floor result drifts from plan, entering the measured values (starting with Length) shows how much of the gap in Fill per Piece each variable explains.
• Teaching and study — the accepted ranges bracket normal Apparel Manufacturing & Garmenting practice, so moving one variable at a time shows the shape of the relationship rather than a single answer.

Reading the result

Typical bands and what each one is telling you.

Assumptions and limits

• Fill density is the specification's, usually fixed by weighing an approved sample and dividing by the cover volume; a hollow conjugated fibre reaches the same loft at a lower density than a solid one, so the density belongs to the fibre as much as to the product. A knife-edge pillow is taken as half the volume of the box it fits in, an approximation for a pillow that tapers to its seams; weigh a sample to confirm it. Overfill is the extra fill that keeps a cushion full after compression and handling. Pieces per bale is rounded down. **This is a fill take-off; it does not predict loft, resilience or wash performance.**
• Every input is bounded to the range normal practice occupies (Length 10 to 250 cm, Width 10 to 250 cm and Depth (Loft or Gusset) 1 to 60 cm, and so on for the rest). Those bounds are guard rails against typing errors, not a claim that the formula fails one unit outside them.
• The calculation is deterministic: the same inputs always give the same result. It carries no allowance for machine condition, operator skill, ambient conditions or lot-to-lot material variation unless an input above explicitly represents one.
• Nothing is sent anywhere. The maths runs in your browser, so the numbers you type never leave the page.

Standards and further reading

• EN 12934, Feather and down, composition of finished products, for down and feather fills; fibre fills follow the buyer's specification.
• EN 1021-1 and -2, assessment of the ignitability of upholstered furniture, and BS 5852 / the UK furniture fire regulations where the market requires them.
• The product specification: approved sample mass, cover size and fibre type.

Questions people ask