Teijin Frontier, the fibre product converting business of Teijin Group, has developed what it says is a new highly water-repellent fabric incorporating enhanced stretch.
The fabric is designed primarily for trousers and outerwear applications requiring medium thickness materials. Teijin Frontier plans to market the new product from the beginning of the 2019 spring/summer season and is targeting annual sales of JPY1bn (US$9m) by the fiscal year ending March 2021.
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Based on the company’s existing water repellent fabric, the new design incorporates a convex structure with horizontal surface tension, which is smaller than waterdrops, allowing water to run off the surface smoothly.
Teijin says the fabric achieves an initial grade four out of five in water-repellent rating, and a grade three rating after being washed 20 times. It is able to stretch by 10%, and maintains water-repellency when stretched thanks to its flexible structure; conventional water-repellent fabrics are unable to achieve similar levels of stretchablility because of the high density of their yarn arrays.
It adds that the new fabric was developed in response to growing demand for highly water-repellent apparel, including stretch garments such as trousers and outer clothing, due to the increased frequency of heavy rain in Japan.
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