Technical Textiles

What are the technical textiles

Tutorials  for technical textiles 

Higher performance textiles

Engineering Textiles 

Industrial Textiles    

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Technical textiles can be defined as fibrous materials and these types of textile materials are produced for particular function and performance. Sometimes they may provide aesthetic and decorative. But it is not main purposes part of technical textiles. According to the various functions and performances these technical textiles are commonly used instead metal and wood. For an example bicycle arm was produced early with metals and it is heavy weight. But today it is produced using boron fibers/ composites and take low weight and also easy to conduct.

                              

There are varieties of industries day to day use technical textiles for various functions .Now I hope to explain selected three types of technical textiles.

Geoteh - Geotextiles 

Geotextiles are type of technical textiles which are applied to earth for different engineering purposes. Applications of geotextiles can be categorized as,

·         Separation

·         Filtration

·         Drainage

·         Coastal protection

·         Reservoirs and lakes

·         Concrete mattress

·         River bank and ground protection

·         Reclaimed lands

·         Embankment

·         Railway protection

·         Roadway protection

·         Soil erosion control

·         Landfills

·         Sealing    

All above I listed points are important. For an example Filtration allows to adequate liquid and water flow with limited soil loss across the plane of particular geotextile. Another example is soil erosion control. I think you have seen beach and land erosion of western area of Sri Lanka and government has applied suitable geotextiles to avoid sea erosion. Now I hope point out basic types of geotextiles are produced.

-          Woven Fabrics

-          Nonwoven Fabrics

-          Knitted Fabrics

Before manufacturer produce and engineer apply geotextiles consider several properties of geotextiles such as puncture strength, burst strength, dynamic puncture, permeability, apparent opening size (AOS), grab tensile strength and elongation, etc. And we can see various appropriate products to perform above functions such as

·         Geocomposites – Glass fibers are knitted on nonwoven geotextiles helps to enable better use in highway applications. As a typical example can be denoted as bentonite geocomposites.

·         Geocells – Commonly geocells have polymetric cellular structure and regular open network with connected stripes and regular links. These geocells are used as embarkment to increase strength and preventing river or other bank from cracks.

    

·         Geogrids – Geogrids are manufactured as unidirectional geogrids, biodirectional geogrids, extruded geogrids, bonded geogrides, woven geogrids, etc.  Commonly above varities are use various works such as woven / knitted polyester coated geogrids are used for wall retailing applications.

·         Geonets – Geonets are usually produced by continues extrusion of parallel forms of polymetric ribs at acute angels with drainage application. And geonets are commonly used for drainage applications.

·         Geomembrances – Geomembranes are commonly used as liquid and gas barrier. For example I can say one application as canal lining.

·         Geomats – Geomats have polymeric structure and it is commonly produced as 3D mesh. And geomats are commonly used for surface erosion control.

 

·         Biomets and Bionets – Biomets and bionets are permeable and made using jute, coir, sisal by kepting together sometime used even synthetic fibers.   

Above picture shows how geo textiles are apply on the earth and we can see few layers. This layers show clear diagram for separation of soil complexes.

Agrotech – Agriculture Textiles

Agrotechs are also textile materials which are produced to support agricultural purposes. Now I can list out various sub category of agriculture industry and they are,

·         Agrotextiles for crop production

·         Agrotextiles for horticulture, floriculture and forestry

·         Agrotextiles for animal husbandry and aqua culture

·         Agrotextiles for agro engineering related applications

When we I searching information about agricultural textiles I found applications and used in greenhouses fabrics control proper humidity and light control. Flax, jute based layers apply to ground area to keep ever moisture and wet ability. Not only farming plants agrotech always used every I pointed categories. To produce agrotech in the textile industry commonly used Nylon, Polyester, Polyethylene, Polyolefin, Polypropylene, Jute, Coir, Wool, etc. And applications of this type technical textile can be list as,

-          Sunscreens – These types of applications are used to prevents seed-bed from excessive sunlight

-          Plants nets – Some fruits like garlic carpel grow nearly ground hence, dust and soil may attract. To prevent that can be used plants nets.

-          Wind protection fabrics – to protect some small plants from winds these fabrics are applied

-          Bird protection nets – We all now birds like to eat fruits and farmer always dedicate to save harvest hence bird protection nets are applied

-          Packing Materials – Some fruits and vegetables are damaged when transporting. Therefore packing textiles are used to avoid damaging harvest

-          Green house applications – Green house applications are used to protect seed-beds and plants from light, wind and transpiration.

-          Grow Media – Jute, coir layers are applied to keep wetability and consistency of moisture of plant roots.

-          Fish nets – Fish nets are used to collect fishes from lakes and sea. And also fish nets are using prawns cultivation such as hatchery. This type of textile materials important points are toughness and breaking strength.      

By using this agricultural textiles famers harvest production will increased and easily can obtain fresh fruits and any agricultural products. I think agricultural textiles are more practical type of technical textile.

Protech – Protective Textiles

Protective textiles are essential part of day to day works. I remember in the course TTX5234 we studied cardinal rules of hazards control and they are hazard elimination, safety devices and, warning and instructions. Not only that in the industrial hygiene we had talked about personal protective equipments (P.P.E) those are used to eliminate industrial hygienic effects and hazards. Hazards are physical, chemical, biological and ergonomically. Under the protective textile engineering considered above I told points. When we talking about properties should have protective textiles we can list.

·         Light weight and commonly low bulk

·         Thermal insulating

·         Flame resistance

·         Heat and melt resistance

·         High Durability

·         Dimensional stability

·         Water repellence

·         Air permeable

·         UV resistance

·         Cut resistance

·         Streatchability

·         Water  repellant

·         Dapability and handle properties, etc.       

In the formation of protective textiles following fibers are used to various applications and I have tabulated such information as below.

Fiber Type	Applications
PBI	Hot gas filtration, Thermal protective clothing
Spandex	Sport cloths, Support hose
Inorganic Fibers	Military application, Electrical resistance equipments
Carbon Fibers	Firefighting suits,   Thermal protective clothing
Aramid Fibers	Cut resistance tools, Bulletproof cloths, Helmets
Glass Fibers	Eye protectors ( Chemical industry)
Cotton Fibers	Cotton Marks ( To prevent biological hazards )

Sometimes to produce protective textiles two or more composites are taken for example can be given to increase to strength of helmet commonly used aramid and carbon fibers.

And also further researching appropriate products we can give namely high temperature protective textiles, biological protective textiles and health care garments, metalized fabrics, flame resistant fabrics, chemical protective textiles, mechanical protective textiles, ballistic protective textiles, radiation protective textiles, electrical protective textiles, etc. By aiding protective textiles in the industrial works day to day hazards and hygienic effects will be reduced.