Apparel ideas honoured at Techtextil and Avantex awards
24/05/2011
Chairman of the judges’ jury, Dr Jan Laperre from the Belgian textile research centre, Centexbel, said the textile industry had undoubtedly been hit badly by the economic crisis that began in 2008, but the number and level of applications he and his colleagues received for these awards suggested to him that the industry is “very much alive”. There were 84 submissions in all.
Outlast received an Innovation Award in the ‘new materials’ category for its new polyester fibre with phase change materials. “Comfort is an area in which companies can gain a real competitive advantage, especially in sports and personal protective equipment applications,” said Dr Laperre in presenting the award. He explained that Outlast had already applied its heat-absorbing and -storing phase change materials technology to viscose fibre about four years ago and acrylic fibre 11 years ago. “This new polyester product is a different concept,” he said, “because the polyester forms the sheath and the phase change material technology the core.”
Austrian textile machinery manufacturer Lindauer Dornier received an award for its Open Reed Weave Technology. It’s a machine that the jury believes will allow weavers to produce “completely new structures”, Dr Laperre said. He added: “The jury recognises the role technology providers can play in creating innovation.”
There was an honourable mention for PyroTex of Germany for a new acrylic fibre with fire resistant (FR) functionality. Dr Laperre called on the chemical industry to take note of what PyroTex and other textile innovators have done and work to find commercial applications.
Innovation Awards in the Avantex competition went to the Hohenstein Institute for an “intelligent trousers” product that it developed specifically for forestry workers. The trousers have magnetic field sensors and magnets in tools such as powerful saws switch the power off when the machine gets too close to the user’s legs. Dr Laperre said it was an idea that standards bodies ought to take an interest in and take into account when reviewing standards.
Another Avantex Innovation Award went to Luxlon from Belgium and Sofileta from France, who combined to make Luxicool, a new fibre with what Dr Laperre called “excellent cooling properties achieved solely through the performance of the yarn”. Luxicool works by carefully combining hydrophilic and hydrophobic co-polymers. This makes evaporation of moisture so efficient, the manufacturers claim an athlete’s body temperature can reduce by 1.7 degrees Celsius if fabric made from the fibre is in contact with the body. Dr Laperre announced that several top tennis players and a professional cycling team have been involved in testing Luxicool in the field.
There was an honourable mention at the Avantex Awards for Tex-vest, co-developed by two German research institutes, one in Greiz and one in Berlin. It integrates light-emitting diode (LED) technology in a vest for traffic police officers. The lights can appear as arrows in green, indicating the direction in which cars need to move at times of congestion or an accident, or in red, spelling out the word STOP if necessary. There were many applications involving integrating LED into textiles, but Dr Laperre said the jury liked this one the best because the LED was more than decorative; it also liked the mechanism at the traffic officer’s wrist for controlling the lights.
Share this story:
