Breathable smart and low energy fabrics

The new breeds of materials, such as smart fabrics (that link to or act as computers) or “low energy” (“green”) fabrics, such as those made from seaweed, almost universally need to be “breathable” and comfortable to wear.  In practical and technical terms this means fabrics must have suitable vapour permeabilities.

There are two main ways to measure water vapour permeabilities and Versaperm produces cutting edge equipment for both options. The first uses a modern instrumental technique and can produce results in as little as 30 minutes, the second is a gravimetric measurement which follows ISO standard (15496:2004) but usually takes several weeks for a single measurement. 

Although the standard applies specifically to water vapour, equivalent instrumental techniques are available for other gases. Modern developments and technology is increasingly favouring the instrumental technique. 

The Versaperm instrumental system is simple to use and requires, at most, minimal training, yet it can produce precise results not just for water vapour and oxygen but also for virtually any other gas – including CO2, which is increasingly used for the supercritical dyeing of fabrics. 

The ISO standard (15496:2004) equipment requires considerably more care but is designed to achieve full compliance with the ISO standard.

Both systems give results that are accurate in the Parts Per Thousand (PPT) range, though the instrumental system can provide PPB accuracies for some materials and vapours.  Additionally, it can control environmental conditions such as saturation, temperature, pressure and diurnal cycles. Either techniques can test simple or multi-layer technical textiles and fabrics as well as measuring several samples at the same time.

ENDS

Please send any sales enquiries to
Versaperm Ltd: 10 Rawcliffe House, Howarth Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 1AP, UK,
e.mail: info@versaperm.com www.versaperm.com
UK Tel: +44 (01628) 777668
USA Tel +011 (617) 500-8607

For Further Press Information please contact:
Gerry Palmer @ the Palmer & Rose Partnership
Tel 01494 637499 
e.mail gerry@palmer-rose.co.uk