JAPAN: Innovative Fibre From Kuraray

By just-style.com | 12 February 2001

A fibre with a hollow core makes news in the range now being offered to Western textile manufacturers by the Japanese Kuraray company. Known as Kuralon, the fibre is prized for its feather-lightness and recently technicians from Kuraray have revealed to customers precisely how this is achieved.

Interviewed at the recent Expofil yarn fair in Paris, Hideo Hayashi, technical manager for the division responsible for the development of Kuralon, explained that Kuralon is a water soluble fibre that is coated with wool, cotton or acrylic.

The core is then dissolved - often at the stage when the Kuralon has already been woven or knitted into fabric and sometimes even when finally made up into a completed garment.

"As well as dramatically reducing weight this technique also produces more crease resistant fabrics with improved heat exchange properties," said Hayashi.

By Sonia Roberts