Handbook of Technical Textiles

A. Richard Horrocks, Subhash C. Anand

• Publisher: Woodhead Publishing
• Year: 2000
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• eBook ISBN:
  9781855738966
• Subtopic: Materials Science
• Index: Technology & Engineering

This major handbook provides comprehensive coverage of the manufacture, processing and applications of high tech textiles for a huge range of applications including: heat and flame protection; waterproof and breathable fabrics; textiles in filtration; geotextiles; medical textiles; textiles in transport engineering and textiles for extreme environments.Handbook of technical textiles is an essential guide for textile yarn and fibre manufacturers; producers of woven, knitted and non-woven fabrics; textile finishers; designers and specifiers of textiles for new or novel applications as well as lecturers and graduate students on university textile courses. - Comprehensive handbook for all aspects of technical textiles - Detailed coverage of processes, fabric structure and applications - Contributions from recognised experts world-wide

1

Technical textiles market – an overview

Chris Byrne Principal Consultant David Rigby Associates, Peter House, St Peter’s Square, Manchester M1 5AQ, UK

1.1 Introduction

Although ‘technical’ textiles have attracted considerable attention, the use of fibres, yarns and fabrics for applications other than clothing and furnishing is not a new phenomenon. Nor is it exclusively linked to the emergence of modern artificial fibres and textiles. Natural fibres such as cotton, flax, jute and sisal have been used for centuries (and still are used) in applications ranging from tents and tarpaulins to ropes, sailcloth and sacking. There is evidence of woven fabrics and meshes being used in Roman times and before to stabilise marshy ground for road building – early examples of what would now be termed geotextiles and geogrids.

What is relatively new is a growing recognition of the economic and strategic potential of such textiles to the fibre and fabric manufacturing and processing industries of industrial and industrialising countries alike. In some of the most developed markets, technical products (broadly defined) already account for as much as 50% of all textile manufacturing activity and output. The technical textiles supply chain is a long and complex one, stretching from the manufacturers of polymers for technical fibres, coating and speciality membranes through to the converters and fabricators who incorporate technical textiles into finished products or use them as an essential part of their industrial operations. The economic scope and importance of technical textiles extends far beyond the textile industry itself and has an impact upon just about every sphere of human economic and social activity.

And yet this dynamic sector of the textile industry has not proved entirely immune to the effects of economic recession, of product and market maturity, and of growing global competition which are all too well known in the more traditional sectors of clothing and furnishings. There are no easy paths to success and manufacturers and converters still face the challenge of making economic returns commensurate with the risks involved in operating in new and complex markets. If anything, the constant need to develop fresh products and applications, invest in new processes and equipment, and market to an increasingly diverse range of customers, is more demanding and costly than ever.

Technical textiles has never been a single coherent industry sector and market segment. It is developing in many different directions with varying speeds and levels of success. There is continual erosion of the barriers between traditional definitions of textiles and other ‘flexible engineering’ materials such as paper and plastics, films and membranes, metals, glass and ceramics. What most participants have in common are many of the basic textile skills of manipulating fibres, fabrics and finishing techniques as well as an understanding of how all these interact and perform in different combinations and environments. Beyond that, much of the technology and expertise associated with the industry resides in an understanding of the needs and dynamics of many very different end-use and market sectors. It is here that the new dividing lines within the industry are emerging.

An appreciation of the development and potential of technical textile markets therefore starts with some clarification of the evolving terminology and definitions of scope of the industry and its markets. This chapter goes on to consider some of the factors – technical, commercial and global – which are driving the industry forward.

It also considers how the emergence of new geographical markets in China and other rapidly industrialising regions of the world looks set to be one of the major influences on the growth and location of technical textiles manufacturing in the first 10 years of the 21st century.

1.2 Definition and scope of technical textiles

The definition of technical textiles adopted by the authoritative Textile Terms and Definitions, published by the Textile Institute¹, is ‘textile materials and products manufactured primarily for their technical and performance properties rather than their aesthetic or decorative characteristics’.

Such a brief description clearly leaves considerable scope for interpretation, especially when an increasing number of textile products are combining both performance and decorative properties and functions in equal measure. Examples are flame retardant furnishings and ‘breathable’ leisurewear. Indeed, no two published sources, industry bodies or statistical organisations ever seem to adopt precisely the same approach when it comes to describing and categorising specific products and applications as technical textiles.

It is perhaps not surprising that any attempt to define too closely and too rigidly the scope and content of technical textiles and their markets is doomed to failure. In what is one of the most dynamic and broad ranging areas of modern textiles, materials, processes, products and applications are all changing too rapidly to define and document. There are even important linguistic and cultural perceptions of what constitutes a technical textile from geographical region to region in what is now a global industry and marketplace.

1.2.1 Technical or industrial textiles: what’s in a name?

For many years, the term ‘industrial textiles’ was widely used to encompass all textile products other than those intended for apparel, household and furnishing end-uses. It is a description still more widely favoured in the USA than in Europe and elsewhere (see, for example, the Wellington Sears Handbook of Industrial Textiles).²

This usage has seemed increasingly inappropriate in the face of developing applications of textiles for medical, hygiene, sporting, transportation, construction, agricultural and many other clearly non-industrial purposes. Industrial textiles are now more often viewed as a subgroup of a wider category of technical textiles, referring specifically to those textile products used in the course of manufacturing operations (such as filters, machine clothing, conveyor belts, abrasive substrates etc.) or which are incorporated into other industrial products (such as electrical components and cables, flexible seals and diaphragms, or acoustic and thermal insulation for domestic and industrial appliances).

If this revised definition of industrial textiles is still far from satisfactory, then the problems of finding a coherent and universally acceptable description and classification of the scope of technical textiles are even greater. Several schemes have been pr...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Preface
• List of contributors
• 1: Technical textiles market – an overview
• 2: Technical fibres
• 3: Technical yarns
• 4: Technical fabric structures – 1. Woven fabrics
• 5: Technical fabric structures – 2. Knitted fabrics
• 6: Technical fabric structures – 3. Nonwoven fabrics
• 7: Finishing of technical textiles
• 8: Coating of technical textiles
• 9: Coloration of technical textiles
• 10: Heat and flame protection
• 11: Textile-reinforced composite materials
• 12: Waterproof breathable fabrics
• 13: Textiles in filtration
• 14: Textiles in civil engineering. Part 1 – geotextiles
• 14: Textiles in civil engineering. Part 2 – natural fibre geotextiles
• 15: Medical textiles
• 16: Textiles in defence
• 17: Textiles for survival
• 18: Textiles in transportation
• 19: Textiles and the environment
• Index