Expandable Yarn for Textile Compressibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing knitted and woven fabrics lack versatility in terms of appearance and compressibility, as well as the ability to meet specific requirement profiles, particularly in regards to expandability and processing with conventional textile machines.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a yarn with a coating or sheathing of expandable material that increases in volume due to environmental changes such as temperature, pressure, or humidity, allowing for significant diameter expansion up to 1000% or more, enabling processing with conventional machines and novel applications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If yarn diameter is increased to achieve desired material thickness and density, then material properties are improved, but conventional textile machines cannot process such thick yarns
Solution Approach 1:
The yarn structure is segmented into two distinct components: a thin processable core and a separate expandable coating layer. This segmentation allows the core to be processed by conventional machines while the coating provides the desired final volume and material properties after expansion.
Solution Approach 2:
The expandable coating is applied to the yarn core in advance during the manufacturing process, creating a yarn with built-in expansion capability. This preliminary action enables the yarn to achieve its final large diameter after processing through environmental triggers like heat or moisture, without requiring post-processing expansion equipment.
2Adaptability or versatility
If fabric structure is modified to improve appearance and compressibility, then versatility is enhanced, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention utilizes changes in environmental parameters (temperature, humidity) to trigger expansion of the coating material. This parameter-based control allows the same yarn structure to adapt to different applications and conditions, providing versatility in appearance and compressibility without requiring complex manufacturing equipment or multiple yarn types.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The yarn can be processed in conventional textile machines and subsequently expanded to increase material density or thickness, offering enhanced compressibility and adaptability, suitable for various applications including insulating materials and protective clothing.
Implementation Method 1
a coating or sheathing of expandable, in particular foamable, material
Implementation Method 2
The desired increase in yarn volume or diameter is controlled by temporarily changing environmental conditions. Conceivable changes in the external conditions are, for example, the temperature, the pressure, the humidity
Implementation Method 3
the at least one foam wall former contains in particular at least one polymer material, a thermoplastic polymer material being selected in particular since this becomes deformable on thermal activation and can be converted back into a solid state when the temperature is reduced
Data Source
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AI summary
The knitted/woven fabric comprises non-meshed intermediate layer made of Jersey fabric which is inserted between upper and lower layers of fabric. The fabric is formed by knitting yarns in parallel after expansion of yarn. The expandable material of yarn is made of foaming agent such as hydrocarbon containing materials, which is encapsulated partially in hollow spheres such as Expancel 930MB120(RTM: thermoplastic hollow spheres) microspheres in mixture with ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) of high and low viscosity. Independent claims are included for the following: (1) method for producing knitted fabric, which involves expanding yarn after sewing, gluing, molding of yarn by adjusting offset of the ambient conditions in solid state; and (2) braided or coated yarn for producing knitted fabric.