Polyurethane fiber, also known as polyurethane elastic fiber, is a special chemical fiber with high elasticity, which is called "spandex" internationally.
Spandex is the most elastic synthetic fiber known in the world, and its tensile length is as high as 500%-800%. It has excellent fatigue resistance and high elastic recovery rate, and its elasticity remains unchanged for a long time, which is incomparable to any synthetic fiber.
Moreover, spandex is a kind of fiber with excellent comprehensive properties. It has elasticity similar to rubber band, but it is finer and more elastic. Chemical resistance, oil resistance, sweat resistance, moth resistance and mildew resistance are far superior to rubber yarn in dyeability and aging resistance, making the fabric thinner, brighter and more durable. Recently, spandex has obvious advantages in the competition with rubber bands. When the cost is close, people tend to use spandex.
The only disadvantage of spandex is its poor chlorine resistance. Washing spandex fabric with sodium hypochlorite bleaching agent is easy to cause the dissolution and fracture of spandex, thus reducing the elasticity of clothes. In order to solve this world problem, Yantai spandex Co., Ltd. organized scientific researchers to tackle key problems, and has invented the manufacturing method of chlorine-resistant spandex, and obtained the national patent.
"monosodium glutamate" textile fiber
Spandex is called "monosodium glutamate-like" fiber. As long as a little spandex (about 2%-5%) is added to the fabric, it will be enough to improve the fabric performance and greatly improve the fabric grade.
The application of spandex yarn began with three openings (neckline, cuff and trouser leg) of knitted underwear. Knitted underwear used to be mostly pure cotton. After washing, the elasticity disappears and the mouth is deformed, which is neither warm nor beautiful. After the advent of spandex, three rib knitted underwear was woven with spandex yarn, which greatly improved the elasticity of three rib. With the further improvement of the application technology of spandex, many textiles take spandex as the yarn core and wrap nylon, polyester, cotton, hemp, wool, silk and other fibers to make various core-spun yarns, wrapped yarns and twisted yarns. The elastic advantages of spandex are organically combined with the inherent characteristics of other fibers to complement each other. Spandex is used in more and more fields-from knitwear to woven fabrics, from functional fabrics to clothing fabrics, from underwear to outerwear, from women's wear to men's wear, and has won the reputation of "the second skin of human beings". Spandex fabric has become the most popular international fashion consumer goods.
Spandex cloth has a wide range of uses and varieties. Recently, according to the elongation multiple of spandex in fabrics, it is mainly divided into tight type, comfortable type and loose type.
Tight spandex fabric is extremely elastic, can closely cooperate with every movement of the human body, can freely expand and contract, and will not produce a sense of bondage. It is mainly used to make gymnastic clothes, swimming suits, skating clothes, golf jerseys and other sportswear, and spandex has become the standard component of sportswear. Comfortable fabrics are mostly used in women's tights, fitness clothes, underwear, bras, pantyhose, high-elastic socks and so on. Spandex makes the fabric closely contact with the body, plays a clever role in decoration and support, beautifies the human body curve, but has no sense of oppression, and is deeply loved by female compatriots. Loose spandex fabrics, such as casual clothes, greatly increase the wrinkle resistance due to the role of spandex yarns, and will not deform after long-term wear, thus improving the vividness, drape and shape retention of clothes. With the addition of spandex, corduroy, denim, denim and other traditional clothing materials have revived and become the favorite of young people.
Spandex is not only used in the textile field, but also developed into industrial and biomedical applications, including furniture, decorative fabrics for car seat bags, various decorative laces, surgical elastic bandages, sports kneepads, artificial organ materials and various auxiliary equipment.
Different application fields have different performance requirements for spandex. Large spandex enterprises will use abundant production lines and strong technical force to produce various types of spandex fibers. Yantai spandex is the largest and most complete spandex enterprise in China at present, with everything from filament 15 denier spandex to the coarsest 1400 denier spandex, forming dozens of varieties in four series, including gloss, matting, ammonia resistance and easy dyeing, which can not only ensure the perennial supply of large-scale products, but also meet the individualized and small-batch needs of different users. This is the development of China spandex industry.
Civilization of "aristocratic fiber"
At the end of the 20th century, domestic spandex enterprises led by Yantai spandex came into being, with an annual growth rate of 10% ~ 15%, which quickly reversed the passive situation that foreign spandex occupied the domestic market in large quantities. At present, there are more than 20 domestic spandex enterprises with a total production capacity of 80,000 tons, which is basically the same as the domestic market demand. The rapid development of national spandex industry has played a positive role in promoting the healthy development of China's textile and garment industry and promoting the popularization of spandex.
Lycra and spandex
In the world spandex family, the most famous brand is Lycra of DuPont Company. As early as 1989, China established the national spandex brand-"Newstar", and the mainland spandex industry has made rapid progress in recent years, occupying an important position in the world spandex industry.
With the rapid growth of spandex production capacity in the world, especially in Asia, the sales volume and price of DuPont "Lycra" brand spandex also show a rapid downward trend.
News star and spandex
Yantai spandex Co., Ltd. produced "Newstar" brand high-quality spandex in June1989+1October, which filled the national blank and ended the history that domestic spandex demand was completely dependent on imports.
"Newstar" spandex is produced by the most mature dry spinning technology in the world, and its quality has reached the advanced level of similar products in the world. It has been rated as "national new product" and "national key new product" successively. With excellent product quality and good corporate reputation, Newstar has established long-term and stable cooperative relations with many well-known domestic brands such as Three Guns, Youngor, Hongdu and Langsha. The domestic market share exceeds 20%, and it is exported to Europe, America, Australia, Middle East and Southeast Asia, enjoying a high reputation in the international market.
The company has established a provincial technology development center, and the national key scientific and technological project-"Industrialization Technology of Spandex Fiber" won the second prize of national scientific and technological progress awarded by 200 1 the State Council.
The bright future of spandex
With the progress of human civilization, leisure, comfort and sports lifestyle has become a global trend. The spandex elastic fabric that can best cope with this consumption concept will surely usher in greater development space, and the consumption area of spandex will gradually extend from economically developed areas to developing countries, small and medium-sized cities and rural areas.
Like other synthetic fiber varieties, with the change of market demand, functional spandex will be explored after the conventional varieties are basically satisfied. Such as health-care antibacterial spandex, low-stress high-elongation spandex, heat-resistant flame-retardant spandex and the like. At present, the world's major spandex companies are sparing no effort to develop new varieties of differentiated spandex, constantly improve their application technology and strive to broaden the application fields of spandex.
Spandex, a growing industry, has infinite charm and development.