DuPont Launches Low Heatset Lycra, Non-Woven Division

Wilmington, Del.-based fiber and chemical company DuPont has launched a new version of Lycra with a lower heatset temperature for use in blends with fibers such as cotton, wool, Tencel, rayon and nylon.

The benefits of Easy Set Lycra include a softer hand, brighter colors and whiter whites, according to Jean Hegedus, knitwear marketing manager for DuPont, who added that the resulting fabric tends to “maintain more of the properties of whatever fiber it’s blended with.”

The lower heatset also means some knitters will be able to conserve energy by using the fiber, although Hegedus was reluctant to make that claim, noting that it depends on the type of equipment the knitter has.

“Everyone has different equipment in terms of their tenter frame,” she said. “Some of them have the ability to control temperature on individual frames whereas other people have to run three or four or five frames on the same temperature. The actual cost savings involved from processing, that’s going to vary a lot.”

The current version of Easy Set Lycra is for use in circular knits and wovens blended with staple fiber. A filament version of the fiber is due to be released this summer, according to the company. Hegedus said the company is working on a warp knit version of the fiber, but has not set a release date for the product. Easy Set Lycra is not recommended for blends with polyester, which requires a high heatset temperature.

The company eventually plans to have a family of Easy Set Lycra products, Hegedus said.

DuPont tested Easy Set Lycra through its Lycra Assured Partners, helping to cut the development time down from about 35 months to about 18 months, Hegedus said.

“By really involving our customers at a very early stage we were able to significantly shorten that and get this out to the industry quicker,” she said.

The Lycra Assured Program recognizes the company’s key mills that have been accredited to manufacture fabric that carries the Lycra Assured hangtag.

Several local mills already are using the fiber. Hegedus said Texollini, Green Orange, Kik Rim, Antex and Sharatex are all offering Easy Set Lycra commercially.

Non-Wovens Become Fashionable

The company also launched its newest division, Inova, at the recent Los Angeles International Textile Show.

Inova is described as a “virtual joint venture” between the company’s non-woven and apparel fibers businesses by Ninabeth G. Sowell, global director of sales and marketing for the DuPont division.

The new division is “free to use all of the non-conventional fabric-forming material” within the company as well as pairing DuPont nonwovens with non-DuPont materials, Sowell said.The new division has created three apparel fabrics so far: stretch nonwovens, engineered laminates and thermally bonded fabrics. The stretch nonwovens are created using a patented process that stitch-bonds nonwovens with DuPont Lycra. The results range in appearance from a crushed rib knit to a fine French terry. The engineered laminates are fused nonwovens that have an embossed texture or pattern. The thermally bonded fabrics are 100 percent nylon fabrics that can be created to look like lightweight leather or like paper. The three fabrics are easy care and can be left raw edged. Of the three, the engineered laminates are the more tech-looking, according to Sowell, who added that two of the Inova fabrics are currently being tested in a climbing expedition on Mount Everest. These fabrics are for “serious fashion or serious performance,” she said.

The company is in the process of coining a name for the fabric division of Inova, Sowell said, adding that they are looking for a name that will convey the idea of a nonwoven apparel fabric. Eventually the Inova division will also include shoes, accessories, wall coverings, wrapping and home-furnishing items.

The company just signed Los Angeles-based Phil Fox as its first sales agent and plans to increase the division’s presence “through carefully chosen agents,” Sowell said.

Sowell said the creation of the new division has allowed the company to fuse apparel with technology from other areas of DuPont.

“It’s taken us into technologies that are paper technologies or golf ball technologies and we’re able to bring it back to apparel and it allows designers to tell a whole new story.”