Piece dyed Kevlar filament textile

Image of para-aramid filament dyeing

Three companies, members of Toray Synthetic Textile Cluster, SAN-ESU Co., Ltd. (Komatsu-shi, Ishikawa), SO-WA TEXTILE CO., Ltd. (Hakui-shi, Ishikawa) and Komatsu Seiren (Nomi-shi, Ishikawa) have developed piece-dyeable para-aramid fiber "Kevlar*" filament textile.

Para-aramid fibers which generally have high crystalline properties, resulting in high strength, a high degree of elasticity and excellent heat resistance, are used for bulletproof vests, protective garments and cut resistant gloves.

However, it has been considered extremely difficult to carry out piece dyeing for it barely allows dye stuff to penetrate into inside the fiber because of its high crystalline properties, even though spin-dyeing and immediate dyeing after spinning are possible.

For this development, SAN-ESU carried out special yarn processing on "Kevlar" filament fiber that enables dyestuff to penetrate into the fiber by weakening loose parts of the crystal binding. Moreover, SO-WA TEXTILE which has been dealing with aramid fiber over the years carried out advanced weaving, and specialized dyeing in this processed yarn was carried out by Komatsu Seiren.

These three companies, SAN-ESU, SO-WA TEXTILE and Komatsu Seiren, will promote the application development for firefighter gloves, outdoor sports and heat-resistant, insulating, dustproof clothing for clean rooms with the multicolor dyeability enabled by this development, for applications which had been limited in the use of aramid filament fiber due to color restrictions.

*"Kevlar" is a registered trademark of DuPont.