Functional Yarns

High Visibility

The concept is as simple as it can get: high visibility yarns are yarns dyed in highly visible colours. That’s the whole story.

But how is your normal every day pumpkin orange different than high visibility orange?

High visibility colours contain pigments that absorb the light on UV spectrum and emit it in visible spectrum. This is what gives them that special brilliance.

High visibility colour is usually combined with strips of reflective material (also fascinating technology, but that’s a whole other article). High visibility or safety clothing is managed by standard ISO 20471 which distinguishes three classes of protective clothing – first being appropriate for daylight and small risk of collision while class 3, is mandatory for working in the dark and on busier roads.

Maintenance of safety clothing is a bit of a balancing act – on one hand it needs to be kept clean – no invisible or visible light can be absorbed or emitted if it’s covered in dirt. On the other hand, reflective strips can become less effective with washing and gradually lose function. That is why if you regularly use safety clothing it is recommended to alternate between multiple sets them to keep them clean and bright.

Water Repellent

Durable Water Repellent (or as those cool kids that hang out in outdoor shops call it, DWR) is a special treatment applied to yarn during dyeing process. The covering of the fibre makes it impossible for water to penetrate the fabric, which means that spring showers are no longer an excuse to stay indoors.

There have, however been some concerns, for as you hear the letters “DWR”, normally letters “PFAS” are bound to be mentioned somewhere in the same conversation. PFAS or polyfluoroalkyl substances are so called “forever chemicals” – substances that are stay in the environment and accumulate in organisms due to carbon-fluoride bond, which is one of the strongest chemical bonds. As DWR properties of such compounds are very good, not much else about them is, so new chemicals with DWR effect have been developed and are now less problematic. As one may expect, less persistent chemicals are less durable on your clothing, but reactivating and eventually reapplying the DWR coating it should keep you dry for years.

Abrasion and Pilling Resistance

Pilling is forming of tiny balls of fibre on the surface of fabric. This is a normal process as the garment is aging and rubbing against itself, your skin, or surfaces like chairs or desk edges. How many of your cute tops were diagonally defaced by the rough edges of a seatbelt? Isn’t it frustrating?

Pilling Happens in Stages

First, fibres are torn and stick out of the surface of the fabric. Eventually further rubbing ties those outlying fibres together into knots we see as little balls called pills. At this stage they can still be effectively removed. In the next stage pills get interconnected and also entangled with fibres on top of the fabric and looks like a cobwebs on top of fabric. After this point the situation is mostly unsalvageable.

Some fabrics are more prone to pilling than others. Short staple fibres will naturally start sticking out of the fabric surface sooner.

Different technologies can be used to prolong the life of the garment. Special coatings can be added during dyeing of the yarn, or special washes that remove outlying fibres can be used. More tightly knitted or woven fabrics are more resistant to pilling, because tiny fibres are more tightly woven together.

Martindale Tester

Pilling and abrasion resistance is tested with Martindale test. Martindale tester is a machine that repeatedly rubs the surface of the fabric and counts how many such movements fabric can endure before pilling occurs.

As pills are merely a cosmetic issue until they get out of hand, they also largely influence how we view a piece of clothing. Pilled clothing just looks cheaper in the eyes of the consumer, so price they are prepared to pay for it is accordingly lower.

Cooling Yarns

Baggy sweatpants and hoodies are a completely valid choice for the gym. They are sportswear, too, right? They are comfortable enough, so you could also wear them for a run.

But you probably won’t.

And that’s not merely a fashion thing. You need to be able to move freely when working out, but as you’re likely to get hot (if you’re doing it right, at least), you need your clothes to help you wick sweat from your skin and dry fast and, last but not least, not to make you feel warmer than you already are.

While the material (where synthetics are prevalent) and construction of garment helps a lot, the type of yarn used also makes a difference. Special minerals can be embedded in the yarn to promote freshness. Synthetic yarns with higher count of fibres help wicking moisture and keeping cool even when sweaty. The faster the drying rate, the more effective the cooling is. That is why sports fabrics are often dubbed with names such as “quick-dry” or “microfibre”.

Cooling materials are also increasingly often used in medical field for elastic braces. A good thing too, since you most likely have to wear them for prolonged periods of time.

So the reason we normally wear tight fitting synthetic clothing when running is not just because fitfluencers do it, their very real benefits help us perform and feel better.

Anti-Static Yarns

You may not have known that, but static electricity poses a great problem during all phases of textile production, but it’s also a problem when we are wearing it. Clothes affected by static electricity cling onto skin and may even produce sparks. We all know how uncomfortable being “electrocuted” by your own clothes is, but it also poses danger of fire or explosions in problematic environments. So not something to be taken lightly.

Production of synthetic fibres is run at very specific conditions especially because of static electricity and problems it poses in production. There is little chance for explosions in synthetic yarn production, it is, however, a cause for yarn sticking to surfaces and breaking, which means lower quality of bobbin and expensive machine downtime. We can control moisture content of air in yarn production plant – however, like Kelso couldn’t control the weather for Jackie, we can’t control the climate wherever the end consumer will wear the garment, so we make sure static electricity poses no problem.

Antimicrobial Yarns – Odour Control

Sometimes clothes just kind of go bad – they may smell fresh when they are in your closet, but as soon as you leave the house in them, they start smelling. Seems like the bacteria on the garment in question is thriving.

Aside from smelling less than pleasant, microbes also pose health issue.

Synthetic yarns are better at fending off bacteria to begin with, as they don’t retain as much moisture as their natural counterparts. We do, however, recommend they are washed at lower temperatures to retain those comfortable properties for longer time, so there is a possibility that sweat, fats from skin and leftover detergent are less effectively cleared from the fabric.

Synthetic yarn can become more resistant to bacteria with embedding of metallized particles, but non-metal based technology for odour control is also a possibility.

Chlorine Resistant

Chlorine in swimming pools is objectively a great thing and a necessity. It’s quite aggressive towards our clothing, though. It promotes fading of colour of our garments. A shame, isn’t it? Bathing suit fashion has successfully been fending off beige trends of our everyday clothing, so let’s do everything we can to keep our tropical flower printed bikinis looking as good as new for as long as possible.

Special chemicals can be added during dyeing process to keep colours of synthetic bathing suits from fading in contact with chlorinated water of the swimming pools.

I assume we all know it’s better for our health to change into dry clothing after every swim, however, we as yarn producers also recommend thoroughly rinsing your bathing suit with tap water after every swim, whether in chlorinated or sea water.

Bisphenol-free

Every few years there seems to be a scandal regarding bisphenols content in synthetic clothing. Synthetic clothing is usually dubbed unhealthy, harmful for the environment, etc. While bisphenols may, in fact, be present in synthetic clothing, there are very strict limits set by GRS and Oekotex®, but also by EU legislation. So while you cannot prevent exposure to harmful chemicals entirely (unless you live in a bubble – but then again, what is your bubble made of?), as a conscious garment producer you have the ability to choose suppliers that abide strict international laws. Last but not least, it’s up to us as consumers to choose clothes consciously.

Some famous international brands are setting an example (and also probably trying to stay on top of ever-changing legislation) by demanding products in their supply chain to be bisphenol-free, or with minimal bisphenol content in regard to standard products. By using special precautions and using the right dyes and chemicals, yarns can be produced entirely bisphenol-free with no significant effect on the colour range of the final product.

Conclusion

Technology of synthetic yarns is an ever-evolving field and demand is growing, not just in quantity but also in quality and functionality of yarn. We as yarn producers can fine-tune different abilities of yarn and make your new garment a good partner for any work or leisure endeavour.

If you are looking for high quality cooling yarns to help you make your next line of functional activewear, look no further – BETI has you covered! Contact our sales team or check our assortment of available yarns in PES, PA6 and PA6.6.

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