1. Textiles. Innovations in modern fabric design, manufacture, and use.<br />Textile manufacturing. <br />Textile manufacturing is one of the oldest of man's technologies. The oldest known textiles date back to about 5000 B.C. In order to make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fibre from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning. The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving, which turns yarn into cloth. The machine used for weaving is the loom. For decoration, the process of colouring yarn or the finished material is dyeing. <br />Typical textile processing includes 4 stages: yarn formation, fabric formation, wet processing, and fabrication.<br />The three main types of fibres include natural vegetable fibres (such as cotton, linen, jute and hemp), man-made fibres (those made artificially, but from natural raw materials such as rayon, acetate, Modal, cupro, and the more recently developed Lyocell), synthetic fibres (a subset of man-made fibres, which are based on synthetic chemicals rather than arising from natural chemicals by a purely physical process) and protein based fibres (such as wool, silk, and angora).<br />Textiles can be made from many materials. These materials come from four main sources: animal, plant, mineral, and synthetic. In the past, all textiles were made from natural fibres, including plant, animal, and mineral sources. In the 20th century, these were supplemented by artificial fibres made from petroleum. <br />Textiles are made in various strengths and degrees of durability, from the finest gossamer to the sturdiest canvas. The relative thickness of fibres in cloth is measured in deniers. Microfiber refers to fibres made of strands thinner than one denier.<br />Nomex<br />USES:<br />Flame-retardant protective gear<br />for camping, fire fighters, race car drivers, motorcyclists,<br />and military pilots.<br />A little over 100 years ago, the word “textile” meant a fabric produced from a plant fibre such as cotton, flax, or jute; from an animal protein such as wool or silk; or from some combination of these. Typically, fibres were spun or twisted into yarn, which then could be woven, braided, knit, or felted and used in apparel, furnishings, and various industrial applications.<br />Today, man-made fibres have replaced natural fibres in everyday items and are widely used in industries that were nonexistent or just getting started 100 years ago.<br />These high-tech textiles are vital in aerospace, transportation, sports, and energy generation; and are of growing importance in the construction, medical, and industrial fields. They are also working their way into civilian and military apparel to inform<br />us about ourselves and our environment, and they are finding their way into the art world for their special qualities and beauty.<br />Today’s “high performance” textiles touch virtually all aspects of our lives. They challenge our conception of what a textile “is” and what its function might be. <br />While decidedly new, these fabrics are also old. Old because, many of the materials used in these fabrics; like fibreglass and carbon fibre, have been around for over 50 years. But these fabrics are<br />New, because of their special properties, such as strength, elasticity, durability, and impenetrability, which are constantly being refined and<br />manipulated in innovative ways.<br />Kevlar(Aramid)<br />USES:<br />impact-resistance for bullet-proof vests, kayaks, canoes, anti-mine boots, cargo-lifting slings, and fishing lines.<br />How are the new fabrics better?<br />What materials have they replaced?<br />What kinds of things do the new<br />fabrics make possible that weren’t<br />possible before?<br />Take the example of windmills. The first American windmill used to generate electricity was built by Charles F. Brush in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1888.<br />The diameter of the wooden blade<br />span (“rotor diameter”) was 50 feet, and the turbine produced 12 kilowatts of power. Today, state-of-the-art wind turbines made from fibreglass and/or carbon can have spans that exceed 300 feet and produce 5 megawatts<br />power (5,000 kilowatts) — enough to meet the electricity needs of 1,400 households.<br />Copper Woven Fabric<br />USES:<br />Noncorrosive marine filters and<br />strainers, antibacterial<br />clothing (like “stink-proof” socks),<br />interior decoration, lampshades<br />and screens.<br />Consider protective clothing, “body<br />armour,” used by law enforcement and<br />the military. In the 1960s, body armour<br />was made out of steel plates and<br />weighed approximately 15 pounds.<br />Today, it has been replaced by Kevla, which not only offers improved<br />impenetrability and wearer comfort, but also weighs one-half as much. On the horizon is another fabric, Spectra™, which is several times stronger and lighter than Kevlar.<br />In aerospace, an industry that did not<br />exist a century ago, the search is for<br />lighter, stronger materials to reduce<br />fuel usage and total weight. There is<br />also a need for materials that maintain<br />their integrity in outer space, withstanding temperature extremes<br />and flying debris. The newer fibres<br />fill this bill perfectly.<br />Every culture on earth has its own rich and evolving history of weaving, dying, printing, and assembling fabrics. The oldest recorded fabric dates to around 5000 BC. <br />From the early 1600s until the late 1800s, dramatic improvements were made in the fabric production processes, the machinery used, and the organization of production facilities, yet the fabrics still came from natural fibres that had not been chemically modified.<br />Carbon Kevlar Fibreglass.<br />USES:<br />protective headgear for motorcyclists and race car drivers.<br />The man-made textile revolution began<br />as a quest to artificially produce<br />silk, a fibre prized for its luster and<br />highly desired for use in fine apparel<br />and furnishings. In 1891, a Frenchman,<br />Count H. de Chardonnet, dissolved<br />“natural” cellulose made from wood<br />pulp or cotton rags and forced this<br />material through a tiny extrusion hole<br />to create a thin filament for spinning.<br />Two decades later, Chardonnet’s<br />product was first produced in significant<br />quantity, and three decades<br />later, the E.I. du Pont deNemours<br />Company undertook commercial<br />production in earnest. Today we call<br />this fibre “rayon.”<br />Though man-made, rayon was still<br />created from a natural fibre. The next<br />defining moment in textiles came with<br />the development of a truly synthetic<br />material made from crude oil. This<br />material was nylon. Created by<br />Wallace Carothers, a DuPont scientist,<br />and unveiled at the 1939 World’s<br />Fair in New York, nylon caused an<br />instant sensation in women’s hosiery.<br />“Though wholly fabricated from<br />such common raw materials as coal,<br />water, and air,” said Charles Stine, a<br />DuPont vice president, “nylon can<br />be fashioned into filaments as strong<br />as steel, as fine as a spider’s web, yet<br />more elastic than any of the common natural fibres.” The advent of World<br />War II cut short hosiery production,<br />as nylon was quickly adapted to produce parachutes and other gear for<br />the military.<br />3D-Tex<br />USES:<br />Polyester semi-rigid material<br />for sandwich composite<br />construction, sound<br />installation panels, boats, furniture,<br />and car seats.<br />Next came polyester, “the most<br />widely sold manufactured fibre as well<br />as the most heavily recycled polymer<br />in the world.” This petroleum-based<br />fibre was discovered by Imperial<br />Chemical Industries (ICI) in the<br />United Kingdom. Polyester’s stain resistant, wrinkle-resistant, and<br />quick-drying properties launched<br />what quickly became known as “wash<br />and wear” clothing. Later, in the<br />1980s, Malden Mills of Lawrence,<br />Massachusetts, was the first to manufacture polyester into the ever wildly popular “fleece” with the trade name Polartec.<br />It may seem odd to consider glass<br />a fibre, but glass fibres have been<br />in commercial use since the 1930s,<br />when they found their first large-scale<br />commercial application in insulation.<br />In combination with polyester resin,<br />glass fibres were used to produce<br />structural aircraft parts in World War II<br />and sailboat hulls in 1946. In the early<br />1950s, it was decided to make the<br />Chevy Corvette from Fibreglass after a convertible prototype accidentally<br />rolled over without much damage.<br />Since then, thousands of items have<br />been designed with this material. Its<br />ability to be moulded, its strength-to weight ratio, its heat resistance, and its<br />lightness are valued properties.<br />Stainless Steel Knit Fabric<br />USES:<br />In automotive glass<br />manufacturing:<br />conveyer belt rollers,<br />heat-resistant cloth,<br />sound and heat<br />insulation in aircraft<br />engines.<br />Carbon fibre, a glossy black material that has the highest strength by weight of any known substance, made its industrial debut at the end of the 19th century in the form of carbonized cotton filaments in early incandescent lightbulbs. <br />But it wasn’t until the late 1950s that Dr. Roger Bacon,<br />a scientist at Union Carbide’s Parma Laboratory, produced “long filaments of perfect graphite” that were “only a<br />tenth of the diameter of a human hair, but you could bend them and kink them and they weren’t brittle.” <br />The military and the aerospace industry were quick to grasp the importance of carbon fibre’s lightness, stiffness, and durability in production of planes and vehicles.<br />The Cold War gave particular impetus to exploiting the use of this material. The military developed ways to use the carbon fibre as a replacement<br />for metals and other heavier composites such as fibreglass. <br />Carbon fibre continues to be used widely today in aerospace applications. It has allowed<br />us to make stealth technology<br />that minimizes radar detection.<br />Carbon Kevlar<br />uses :<br />race car seats,<br />boat hulls,<br />cosmetic car uses like<br />dashboard trim.<br />The Boeing Company is fabricating about 50 percent of its newest airplane, the 787, out of carbon fibre and composites with the expectation that fuel costs will decrease significantly.<br />Carbon fibre is the primary material used in high-end sports equipment such as racing bikes, as well as competitive world-class sailing yachts, racing cars, golf clubs, tennis racquets, and hockey sticks. <br />In the medical field, carbon fibre is being used in prosthetics, implants, wheelchairs, and braces — products where<br />lightness, strength, and durability are valued. <br />Carbon fibres are also being used in concrete to add strength without weight and as reinforcements in buildings.<br />Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), discovered in 1991 by Sumio Iijima, are even smaller, stronger, and more flexible than carbon fibres. <br />The NASA web site lists as future applications:<br />composites, drug delivery,<br />hydrogen storage, micro batteries<br />and machines, solar sails, and more.<br />CNTs are currently used in sporting equipment like tennis racquets and as a reinforcement material in cutting edge body armour.<br />Fibreglass<br />USES:<br />wind turbine blades,<br />surf boards, skis,<br />marine hulls,<br />swimming pools.<br />Exciting advances are appearing in<br />a new branch of high-tech textiles,<br />which make the textile “active” or<br />“smart.” Textiles that can actively<br />regulate the wearer’s temperature, change colour, keep socks from smelling, or even form electronic devices are all appearing on the market.<br />These textiles get their “smarts” from innovative coatings or by creating new fabric structures from combinations of transmitting<br />fibres and traditional insulating<br />fibres. The electronic textile field<br />uses fibre optics, metal fibres such<br />as stainless steel, or coated fibres to form electronic networks or sensors.<br />These building blocks can be used to fabricate garments that measure the vital statistics of firemen, soldiers, athletes, and patients comfortably and quickly. <br />Ski jackets are available with sewn-in soft-touch controls that<br />send signals through fabric cables to an iPod™. In these applications, the textiles are adopting the functions of popular electronic devices and are giving new meaning to “wearable<br />computing” or “mobile devices.”<br />How artists take on the challenge of different materials provides valuable insights into design and use. Artists are capitalizing on the possibilities of high-tech textiles to develop creative and aesthetic applications that reshape<br />our sense of common objects.<br />Palmhive Bobble Knit<br />USES:<br />polyester & Lycratm<br />material for<br />camouflage,<br />soft sculptures.<br />Textiles that appear to stand on their own or emit light and sound are just some of the ways that artists have created beautiful forms with hidden<br />capabilities that inspire us to view textiles in a new light.<br />Textiles have long played a vital role in the culture of every society.<br />Today’s textiles underscore this role, redefining the boundaries of what a<br />fabric can be. <br />Just think, instead of making a bag to carry your books,<br />electronics, and other possessions, the future may hold fabrics that do not carry these items, but embody<br />them.<br />