Bicomponent extruded fibres.

Bicomponent extruded fibres.

Industry benefits from technical textile research facilities

CSIRO’s modern research facilities for technical textile production and testing are available to industry for product design and development, and problem solving.

  • 18 September 2008 | Updated 4 February 2013

What are technical textiles?

Technical textiles are manufactured primarily for their technical performance and functional properties.  However, aesthetic values can be applied to technical textile design and sportswear, for instance, can be technical and highly styled.

Carpets and furnishing fabrics aren’t usually considered technical textiles unless they are in a car, aircraft or boat.

Expanding production

Technical textiles make up about 40 per cent of all textile industry output worldwide. Production is expected to continue to grow faster than any other segment of the textile industry.

Technical textiles find application in many sectors, such as:

  • aerospace
  • manufacturing
  • marine
    “Technical textiles make up about 40 per cent of all textile industry output worldwide.”
    Dr Niall Finn
    Theme Leader: Advanced Fibrous Materials
  • military
  • safety
  • transportation
  • construction
  • land management.

Some examples of technical textiles are:

  • filters
  • bulletproof vests
  • wound dressings
  • curtain tapes
  • car airbags
  • safety netting
  • conveyor belts
  • geotextiles.

Many uses in cars

The automotive industry is one of the largest single markets for technical textiles. It is also one of the most diverse.

Applications range from tyre cord, hose and drive belt reinforcements, to thermal and sound insulation, safety belts and airbags, filters, cable harnesses and textile-reinforced composites for body and suspension parts.

Even the internal furnishings of a car – headliners, seating, carpets, parcel shelf and boot liners – are regarded as technical textiles because of the extremely demanding specifications to which they are made and tested.

Medical textiles

Medical and hygiene textiles products range from high volume disposable products for babies’ nappies, feminine hygiene and adult incontinence, to extremely specialised and high value textile products for use in blood filtration, surgical sutures, prostheses and, most recently, scaffolds supporting tissue growth.

Bright future

The promise of technical and performance textiles is an emerging generation of products combining the latest developments in advanced flexible materials with advances in computing and communications technology, biomaterials, nanotechnology and novel process technologies such as plasma treatment.

These will eventually have a direct impact on all sorts of consumer textile markets, including clothing and furnishings. The field of ‘wearable electronics’ has already captured the imagination of many researchers and large corporations.

Researchers at CSIRO are working in this area, and on many aspects of technical textiles. Truly interactive textiles, with sensors, actuators and logic circuits built into the structure of the fibres, yarns and fabrics themselves, are beginning to appear.

Diverse manufacturing methods

Technical textiles are produced by a range of technologies: they can be woven, knitted, braided, or ‘nonwoven’.

In nonwovens, the fibres are not formed into yarns. Instead, individual fibres are arranged in a web or mat, and then bonded by a variety of techniques.

Bypassing the yarn stage significantly reduces production costs. Nonwoven products include carpet underlay, air filters and wind turbine blades.

The capability

Our technical textile production capabilities include traditional knitting and weaving, and three-dimensional knitting. Nonwoven production is supported by capabilities in:

  • assembly of fibres into a uniform web by carding and air laying
  • bonding by chemical or heat treatment, needlepunch, or hydroentanglement
  • spun-bond: continuous extrusion of bi-component fibres, immediate assembly into a web, followed by hydroentanglement bonding
  • extrusion of splittable & bicomponent fibres.

Projects

CSIRO works on:

  • sportswear
  • electronic textiles
  • advanced composites
  • shade-cloth
  • potable water-storage covers
  • sewage treatment plant covers
  • wool blend quilts
  • fibre-reinforced composites
  • wetsuits
  • automotive trims (including hot pressed non-wovens)
  • filtration products
  • geotextiles
  • protective apparel.

Find out about our work in Electronic Textiles in It's not rocket science... it's rockin' science.