Our Own John Watson spoke about Technical Textiles

Textile Textiles

John explained that his last job 13 years was at Bradford University working with a professor in the textiles department. At the time this was the only textiles work left in Bradford. Whilst he was there the department published a journal that was published by Emerald on the subject of Technical Textiles.

He said that a technical textile is a textile product manufactured for non-aesthetic purposes, where function is the primary criterion. To achieve this, they do things such as adding chemicals to fabric to make do different things. The process has been going on for many thousands of years. He gave the example of Tutankhamen’s shroud which had been covered in a substance to make it last

There are many classifications of technical textiles some examples being: -

Agrotech where such products as ground cover membrane and synthetic turf are made.

Builtech producing products like wool insulation and damp proofing.

Clothtec where products like Kevlar have been produced for bullet proof vests & space suits. He also highlighted Gortex where a fabric has been constructed allowing sweat to permeate out but raindrops are too big to soak in.

Geotech where cloths have been designed to help with embankment reinforcement.

Meditech which gives us dissolving stitches and patches that can be used inside the body to repair holes and hernias.

Mobitech which are textiles used in cars, planes, boats and trains. He said one surprising omission in current legislation was that car seat covers were not covered by flammability regulations unlike all the other modes of transport which had strict regulations.

Oekotech are products which are used for environmental protection. One example of this would be the new dissolving wool tree covers that we intend to use on our next tree planting.

The latest growth area is electronics in textiles where people are looking to incorporate computers into wearable products to monitor various body functions.

John gave some more recent examples: -

1. Nike VaporFly sports shoes for long distance running. The body of the shoe contains a VaporWeave material with special foam and carbon fibre plate in the sole. This saves a runner 4% energy being expanded compared to regular shoes. Initially the shoes had 2 carbon fibre plates and a thick layer of foam. As the Athletic Association felt the £1,000 cost of a pair of these was beyond most runners, they limited it so that a shoe could only have 1 carbon plate and minimal foam to limit spring effect.

2. Speedo shark skin swimsuit. These swimsuits were originally designed to imitate a shark skin with no seams but rather a welded construction. The initial suit for both male and female covered the whole body from wrists to ankles. Within 3 months of their introduction 48 world records had been broken. In the 2008 Olympics Paul Biedermann was ranked 9th and in the 200M came 5th with a finishing time of 1 minute 46 seconds. Just 11 months later in the 2009. World Aquatics Championship he won race in 1 minute 42 seconds some 4 seconds quicker. The Swimming Federations then limited amount of body that could be covered by a swimsuit to shoulder to knee women and for men navel to knee.

A not so recent example of technical textiles is the sail on a Viking Longboat. The only product they had was wool which is not ideal as it soaks up water. It wasn’t known how the sails were constructed until pieces of one were found in 1989 in a church. They hadn't washed the wool, so it retained the natural lanolin. They also they wove it in a 2 and 2 twill which created a diagonal weave much tighter than normal which helped reject water. They then covered it in fish oil making it much more impervious to water.