Unusual source for new fabric
03/02/2009
Japanese fibre and fabric manufacturer Unitika has brought a new product to market, a polyamide derived from castor beans, which grow in India, China, Brazil and tropical Africa and are also the source of castor oil.
Assistant manager Shinichiro Soejima has said that the new product offers user companies a way to reduce their carbon footprint because it comes from a natural source.
It is partner company Arkema, a French petrochemical company, that produces the polymer and supplies it to Unitika in resin form. From there, Mr Soejima told sportstextiles.com, his company extracts a fibre and uses it to make a new fabric called Castlon.
“This is new for us,” he said, “but it's allowing us to produce a fabric with good abrasion resistance and the capacity to withstand temperatures of up to minus-40 degrees Celsius without going hard. So our thinking is that it will be very good for winter sportswear.”
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