Specialty chemicals company Kraton Polymers LLC has taken a step towards commercialisation of its next generation of styrenic block copolymers (SBCs) in fibre offerings for industrial, personal hygiene and textile applications.

Kraton’s advancement in bicomponent fibre enables the combination of elastic spunbond grades offering biaxial stretch which are said to require no additional drying, offer excellent process stability, and can be spun at high speeds.

From an application standpoint, Kraton’s spunbond grades are compatible with polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) for elastic bicomponent spunbond fabrics. Fabrics made with bicomponent fibres—a PP or PE sheath and a Kraton polymer core—are elastic in both the machine and cross direction, and offer better drape character. In addition, the fabric's coefficient of friction can be controlled using various bicomponent fibre configurations.