Textile Research Research Articles

Molotov cocktail protection - protective clothing material for emergency forces

In order to better protect emergency personnel, a suitable material was sought that would meet various requirements. To achieve this, a project was carried out by the Saxon Textile Research Institute e. V. (STFI), Germany and the Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA) of RWTH Aachen University, Germany, called “Molotov cocktail protection – protective clothing material for emergency forces”. First, suitable fiber mixtures were selected and then tested for a high accuracy of fit. Afterwards, specially designed fabrics were developed and produced to realize a smooth surface. In addition, a coating for high hydrophobia was established. To examine these newly developed fabrics, a test procedure was developed and modified. Results show correlations between fiber selection as well as yarn and fabric construction with the resulting fabric properties. Findings can be given in the form of technological and product-related recommendations.

Reconstruction of traditional safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) dyeing and red colors in the Qing Dynasty (17th-19th century)

Safflower was one of the most prominent red dyes used on silk during the Qing Dynasty. Studies of traditional natural dyes and dyeing have always been an integral part of ancient textile research. A combination of literature analysis, dye identification, and machine learning regression analysis was used to reconstruct safflower dyeing and colors in the Qing Dynasty. Based on the dyeing archives collected by the Weaving and Dyeing Bureau, this study establishes a color prediction GPR model for safflower dyeing. Three types of red color dyes on a Qianlong Kesi robe in the Beijing Art Museum were analyzed by HPLC-DAD-MS. A correction set cyclic training method was developed to reconstruct the color and dyeing recipe on textile relics with high predictive efficiency. Furthermore, the effect of each dyeing parameter on the color was analyzed. A color gamut and dyeing recipe database were constructed for Pure Red, Peach Red, Water Red, Red, and Fish Red recorded in the dyeing archives, providing a reference for research on traditional dyeing technology.

Finds, Fragments, and Friendship: The Grace Crowfoot Collection at the Textile Research Centre, Leiden, and Its Value as Historical Record

This paper explores the Grace Mary Crowfoot collection of textile objects and letters found in the Textile Research Centre (TRC) in Leiden. Crowfoot, a textile archeologist worked mainly between North Africa and the Middle East, although her interests were far more expansive. Her collection in the TRC has largely gone unstudied. Including a variety of textile samples and related artifacts, along with letters between Crowfoot and her mentee Robert Charleston, the collection seems disparate, however I argue that we may garner much information from such a collection The paper questions how small, diverse collections can be useful for academic research. How can a small collection like the Crowfoot collection be used and how can it contribute to our understanding of the individual and wider society? This paper explores the opportunities and scope in analyzing smaller collections themselves as historical records.

Orange Waste Films as a Raw Material for Designing Bio-Based Textiles: A Hybrid Research Method

Bio-based textiles are an emerging area of cross-disciplinary research, involving material science and design and contributing to textile sustainability. An example of a bio-based textile is an orange-waste film, which is plant-based and biodegradable and possesses mechanical properties which are comparable to some commodity plastics. The research project presented in this article aimed to explore orange-waste film as a new material for textile and fashion design and highlights how experimental co-design processes and innovation involving orange waste film as a textile material adds a new layer of material understanding to both textile design and technology-driven material research. Material-development methods were used to develop the orange-waste film, as were textile design methods with a focus on surface design. The results show that material variables such as tensile strength and elongation are dependent on the grinding process and drying temperature used for the raw material, as these determined the quality and durability of the orange-waste film and its applicability to the field of textile design. The use of orange waste in the creation of textiles opens up for more ways of thinking about and working with materials, and orange waste could become a desirable raw material for textile design on the basis that it introduces certain aesthetic and functional possibilities through its visual and tactile expression and material behaviour, in addition to defining methods of producing textiles.

Wastewater treatment plant effluent and microfiber pollution: focus on industry-specific wastewater.

The production, use, and disposal of synthetic textiles potentially release a significant amount of microfibers into the environment. Studies performed on municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) effluent reported a higher presence of microfibers due to the mix of domestic laundry effluent through sewage. As municipal WWTPs receive influents from households and industries, it serves as a sink for the microfibers. However, research on textile industry WWTPs that primarily treat the textile fabric processing wastewater was not explored with the concern of microfibers. Hence, the review aims to analyze the existing literature and enlighten the impact of WWTPs on microplastic emission into the environment by specifically addressing textile industry WWTPs. The results of the review confirmed that even after 95-99% removal, municipal WWTPs can emit around 160 million microplastics per day into the environment. Microfiber was the dominant shape identified by the review. The average microfiber contamination in the WWTP sludge was estimated as 200 microfibers per gram of sludge. As far as the industry-specific effluents are analyzed, textile wet processing industries effluents contained > 1000 times higher microfibers than municipal WWTP. Despite few existing studies on textile industry effluent, the review demonstrates that, so far, no studies were performed on the sludge obtained from WWTPs that handle textile industry effluents alone. Review results pointed out that more attention should be needed to the textile wastewater research which is addressing the textile wet processing industry WWTPs. Moreover, the sludge released from these WWTPs should be consideredas an important source of microfiber as they contain more quantity of microfibers than the effluent, and also, their routes to the environment are huge and easy.

The ‘golden hoof’: The regeneration of regional wools

There is a myriad of benefits to native and rare breed sheep wool. Making better use of it in innovative products, could position it as the sustainable fibre to champion in the future as we look more inwardly for green solutions in British manufacturing. The relevance of these breeds for a more sustainable future is an issue that divides many in the farming, agricultural and manufacturing communities. This evolving body of work set out to discover the positive impact these breeds could have on both regional economy as well as wider ecology. The key findings showed flaws in British Wool’s homogenised sorting practices, a disconnection between farm and factory with breeders struggling to find that ‘middleman’ without huge overheads as well as outdated breed information with categories of ‘carpet’ or ‘garment’ being unsatisfactory. The research draws together multiple fields of study including textile manufacturing, sheep husbandry and edaphology. Confirming how, in microcosm, the textiles industry’s drive towards natural solutions could be satisfied by wool’s symbiosis with nature.This article forms part of a wider research project which combined academic and practical textile research, highlighting the innovation and diversity of research achieved and encouraged in the School of Arts and Humanities.

Spinning of Stiff and Conductive Filaments from Cellulose Nanofibrils and PEDOT:PSS Nanocomplexes

Research in smart textiles is growing due to the increased demand from the healthcare sector and people’s urge to keep track of and analyze the signals and metrics from their bodies. Electrically conductive filaments are the most fundamental material for smart textiles. These filaments can be imbued with functionalities and useful in fields like energy storage, sensing, and actuation. To be able to meet the requirements that the latter applications require, fabrication techniques must be developed to provide better processability and sustainability in a cost-effective manner. Here, a mixture of a conductive polymer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), and biobased cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) was used to spin filaments utilizing a water-based process. These filaments show electrical conductivities up to 150 S/cm and tensile stiffness of 20 GPa. Interestingly, the PEDOT aligned to a similar degree as the CNFs during the spinning process without a drawing step, which is hypothesized to be caused by the attachment of PEDOT on the CNFs. Lastly, the filaments were tested in an organic electrochemical transistor (OECT) configuration, which resulted in a working device with an on/off ratio approaching 1500. Furthermore, the OECT exhibited stable behavior when changing temperature (20–80 °C) and relative humidity (40–80%). This aqueous spinning method, resulting in filaments with robust electronic properties in different temperature and humidity environments, show greats promise for future innovative smart textiles.

Bioinspired acoustic textiles with nanoscale vibrations for wearable biomonitoring

The smart textile research community is advancing rapidly with the aim of changing the way we wear clothes in the near future. An eardrum-inspired acoustic textile was recently developed that can function as a sensitive audible microphone. The acoustic textile is woven from yarns with a high Young's modulus and thermal drawing composite piezoelectric fibers that can concentrate mechanical stress in the piezoelectric composite layer during the heat drawing process, endowing the fiber with high sensitivity. The acoustic textile can convert even very slight 10⁻⁷ atmospheric pressure waves at audible frequencies into mechanical vibrations with nanometer amplitudes, which further induce the electrical signals through the fibers to detect the direction of sound pulses, broadcast human speech, and capture heartbeats, making it suitable as a wearable platform for long-term biomonitoring.

All things bio: A conceptual domain-based approach to mapping practice within the landscape of biologically informed disciplines

The research presented in this article tackles the problem of terminological disharmony within biologically informed disciplines (BID). Lexical semantic theories and methods are applied to corpus-based investigations to assess the scope of BID terminology. The results are analysed using statistical and qualitative methods and mapped against known academic domains. The resulting map is evaluated via the analysis and consequent positioning of biologically informed textile research. The findings suggest that the experimental framework embodies an alternative approach to mapping practice within BID landscape that overrides the need for broad, generic terms. Instead presents the work within an established network of theories and concepts with transparent interdisciplinary connections.

Innovative Management Strategies in the Rental System for the Example of a Professional Manufacturer of Protective Clothing and Workwear

The article presents selected issues from the field of management and organisation methods in the sector of professional clothing production, with respect to rental and servicing in the rental system. Logistics solutions were described for the example of ORK POLAND Sp. z o.o., a leading producer of protective clothing in the European market, known under the ORK Wear trademark. The country’s leading enterprises are among the clothing recipients, who also provide professional services in the dynamically developing laundry service for work and protective clothing as a rental service. Evaluation of the influence of industrial washing procedures on the properties of materials and clothing products was performed in laboratory conditions according to the EN ISO 15797 standard and with the use of a testing station that was implemented by ORK POLAND Sp. z o.o., as the first and only company in Poland, under project cooperation with Łukasiewicz Research Network – Textile Research Institute.

Research on Flexible Capacitive Sensors for Smart Textiles

Smart textiles are a new era of smart textiles that not only have traditional textile functions, but also have information collection, feedback, and multiple intelligent interaction functions with users. As a manifestation of the combination of art and technology in the textile field, smart textiles are of great significance to traditional textiles, clothing, home textiles, and wearable devices. From the perspectives of the background, technology, and development prospects of smart textiles, this article systematically analyses the application technology of smart textiles in practice. Starting from the current state of smart textile research, the article explains the promotion of new material technology to the research of smart textiles. Focus on the technical improvement of capacitive sensing equipment based on flexible fabrics, and find a sensing fabric structure with lower hysteresis, fast response time, good repeatability and stability through design experiments.

Greetings from Nové Zámky – 40 Years of Textile Research in Slovakia

Greetings from Nové Zámky – 40 Years of Textile Research in Slovakia

Weaving Textiles: Textile Consumption for Travel and Warfare

Textile research has demonstrated that new types of textiles were introduced to Scandinavia in the latter part of the Scandinavian Iron Age (AD 700–900). The archaeology of the period displays an increased number of textile tools, and large concentrations of pit houses dedicated to textile production. This era also saw the introduction of sails to Scandinavia, which is one of the obvious reasons for textiles and textile production becoming such an important part of Viking Age society. However, hitherto the value of the textiles has mostly been ignored, and its impact rarely discussed in research. This article will attempt to remedy this and poses important questions, such as: what was the economic value of the textiles needed for travel and warfare, and what was the value of the textiles used on a journey? In the article, the 10th century Ladby ship from Fyn in Denmark, is used to exemplify the demands and economic value of all textiles of one single ship, on one journey. I will use an interdisciplinary approach, including analyses of archaeological textiles; iconography; and early medieval texts. The aim of this novel method is to highlight the importance of textiles. It will alsoexplore how journeys under sail and warfare contributed to the increased consumption of textiles.

Kangakudujate hääled / Voices of Weavers

This review introduces a book titled „Voices of Weavers. Textile Cultures, Craftsmanship, and Identity in Contemporary Myanmar“ written by a German anthropologist Jella Fink and published by Waxmann publishing house in 2020. It is a lively piece of research that reveals the cultural and economic background of two strands of local weaving traditions in Myanmar. The book summarises author’s fieldwork that was carried out in Myanmar as part of her doctoral studies in the years 2014–2017. Focus on the makers’ perspective is the most important contribution of the present book to research in textiles. In the review, parallels are drawn with Estonian textile-making practices, where applicable.
 Myanmar is geographially and ethnically considerably different from Estonia, but certain similarities can indeed be spotted in the matters of textile production, authorship, professionalisation, and the issues of commercialisation. The greatest value of the book lies in mapping the tradition and explaining the rationale behind alterations in the traditional practices of weaving in two different areas – Mandalaya region in the centre and Kengtung in the distant Western highlands of Myanmar – where the practice is still well alive. As the makers’ perspective is brought to the fore, it gives the voice to often-silenced female members of marginal ethnic groups, and also helps to provide new insights into the social and cultural relations that form the framework for producing intricate textiles, the making of which is very time-consuming and requires a great amount of skill and stamina. The study can well serve as a model for further research into Estonian textile traditions in the future.

Mapping the knowledge domains of smart textile: visualization analysis-based studies

To better understand the current status and development of smart textile studies and explore the research hotspots and directions, 2647 papers related to smart textile studies from 1996 to 2021 were collected from the Web of Science core collection database as data samples. The mapping knowledge domain technology was used to visually analyze the knowledge structure and research trends in the field of smart textile studies. The study found that smart textile studies have recorded a rapid growth between 2010 and 2021. The disciplines of smart textile research mainly focus on materials science and engineering, chemistry, physics, computer science, biomedicine, optics, etc. The ‘ADVANCED MATERIALS’, ‘ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES’, ‘ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS’ are the highly cited journals in the field, and ‘STOPPA M’ as the highly cited author has the highest number of citations. Publications in China, the USA and Germany rank top 3 among countries/regions. Donghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have the most active cooperation with other research institutions. Research on smart textile has basically formed a theoretical research framework, and the research topics are concentrated, but the research hotpots have changed continuously. The current research hotspots and frontiers are how to explore new technologies and applications of smart textile to promote the development in this area.

Moisture in Textiles

The interactions of textiles with moisture have been thoroughly studied in textile research, while fluid mechanists and soft matter physicists have partially investigated the underlying physics phenomena. A description of liquid morphologies in fibrous assemblies allows one to characterize the associated capillary forces and their impact on textiles, and to organize their complex moisture transport dynamics. This review gathers some of the common features and fundamental mechanisms at play in textile–liquid interactions, with selected examples ranging from knitted fabrics to nonwoven paper sheets, associated with experiments on model systems.

A new perspective in e-learning training toolkit development for advanced textile research centres in Morocco and Jordan

This paper presents an overview of training/learning tools for advanced textile research centres in Morocco and Jordan. Within the Erasmus+ FOSTEX project, the main courses necessary for the training of researchers and students enrolled in master’s or doctoral programs in Morocco and Jordan and who will work within the advanced research centres have been identified and selected. Starting from good European practices on learning, teaching, research and testing services, several courses have been structured that offer knowledge on international conformity certification, standardization, quality management, testing/inspection, labelling, integration of technical specifications, testing physical-mechanical, colour resistance testing, tests specific to instrumental analysis and development of advanced materials. In order to improve the skills of human resources (research staff, masters and doctoral students), the Erasmus+ FOSTEX consortium has developed an extensive toolkit of learning-training, thematic workshops and services appropriate to the equipment purchased by partners in Morocco and Jordan for research centres in the field of advanced textiles.

Application of antiviral materials in textiles: A review

AbstractResearch of antiviral textiles has received considerable attention owing to the continuous emergence of new infectious diseases. Antiviral textiles can effectively inhibit the spread of viruses and significantly reduce the risk of cross-infection and re-infection to protect people’s health and safety. In recent years, researchers studied various antiviral materials, which can prevent the spread and reproduction of viruses by killing and reducing their attachment. These materials can be applied to antiviral textiles through finishing and various spinning methods. This review organizes antiviral materials, analyzes their antiviral mechanisms and inhibition effects, and discusses the methods of combining antiviral materials with textiles, as well as their applications in healthcare and public transportation. In addition, prospects for antiviral textile research are proposed. This review provides references for the study of antiviral textiles and may stimulate the continuous research and development of antiviral textiles.

Sustainable Textile and Apparel Enterprise Supplier Selection Research

The textile and apparel industry is characterized by fast changes in customer demand and large seasonal impacts on products, which makes supplier selection more difficult. Textile and apparel enterprises should not only maximize their own economic interests, but also pay attention to humanistic care and ecological concepts due to the pressure from the public and the ecological environment. This study addresses the problem of sustainable development in textile and garment industry. A sustainable supplier selection research system, including quality, cost, flexibility, delivery, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and environmental management, was developed. A fashion apparel company was used as a specific case to support the study. The multi-attribute decision method PROMETHEE is used to evaluate supplier performance. The proposed sustainable framework can deal with the problem of supplier selection in textile and apparel industry effectively.

Coating of ZnO Nanoparticle on Cotton Fabric to Create a Functional Textile with Enhanced Mechanical Properties.

The goal of this research is to develop a functional textile with better mechanical properties. Therefore, nano ZnO is synthesized, characterized, and applied to cotton fabric by mechanical thermo-fixation techniques. The synthesized nanoparticles are characterized by SEM and XRD analysis. The ZnO nanoparticle alone, ZnO nanoparticle with a binder, and ZnO with a binder and wax emulsion are then applied on cotton woven fabrics using three different recipes. The surface morphology of the treated fabric is studied using SEM and EDS. Antimicrobial activity, UV protection property, and crease resistance are all tested for their functional characteristics. In addition, all vital mechanical characteristics are assessed. The results suggest that using only nano ZnO or nano ZnO with a binder enhances functional features while deteriorating mechanical capabilities. Nano ZnO treatment with the third recipe, which includes the addition of an emulsion, on the other hand, significantly enhances mechanical and functional characteristics. Consequently, this study provides information to optimize the confidence of textile researchers and producers in using nano ZnO and understanding its features in key functional fabrics.