Mattress Ticking Fabric: Top & Bottom Panels, Border Strips and Metres per Order

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 8 inputs are read from the form on every keystroke: Length, Width, Border Depth, Mattresses in the Order, Seam Allowance per Edge, Quilting Take-Up on Panels, Fabric Width and Fabric Weight.
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 Metres of Ticking for the Order together with every supporting figure in one pass — no value is carried over from a previous entry.
4. The supporting outputs — Panel Cut Length, Panel Cut Width, Fabric Widths per Panel, Panel Metres per Mattress (Top + Bottom), Border Strips across the Width, Border Metres per Mattress, Metres per Mattress, Fabric Mass for the Order and Bought Fabric in the Cut Pieces — 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

Without the quilting take-up the panels would be cut 10 cm short of their length and 8 cm short of their width.

How to use it

1. Work through the input groups in order — Mattress and Cutting & Fabric. 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 Metres of Ticking for the Order in the dark results panel — that is the headline figure, expressed in m.
4. Check the supporting rows underneath (Panel Cut Length, Panel Cut Width, Fabric Widths per Panel, Panel Metres per Mattress (Top + Bottom), Border Strips across the Width, Border Metres per Mattress, Metres per Mattress, Fabric Mass for the Order and Bought Fabric in the Cut Pieces) 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 Metres of Ticking for the Order 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 — Metres of Ticking for the Order 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 Metres of Ticking for the Order 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

• Sizes, allowances, take-up and fabric are yours; the tool has no typical figure for any of them. Panels are cut with a seam allowance round each edge and enlarged by the quilting take-up in both directions; a panel wider than the fabric takes two or more widths side by side, with the joins left to the factory's practice. The border is cut along the roll as strips the border depth plus two allowances deep, laid side by side across the width, in one length per mattress with one join; the metres are shared between the strips, so the last metres of an order may leave strips part used. Handles, labels, zips and cutting loss at roll ends are not counted. **This is a cutting estimate; a marker made on the real fabric is the order.**
• Every input is bounded to the range normal practice occupies (Length 50 to 300 cm, Width 40 to 300 cm and Border Depth 5 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

• The mattress specification, which sets the finished size, border depth and construction.
• Flammability rules that apply to mattresses where they are sold, such as 16 CFR 1632 and 1633 in the USA or BS 7177 in the UK, which can decide the ticking and barrier fabric.

Questions people ask