A novel method to produce sustainable wind resistant and water repellant fabric for outdoor sport clothing

Abstract

Clothing production have adverse impact on the environment due to inefficient energy utilization during production processing, huge consumption of water and usage of harmful chemicals. Therefore, this work aims to develop a sustainable wind resistant and water repellant fabric through novel technology that reduces production processing steps for efficient energy consumption without compromising required functional performances without durable water repellency coatings (DWR) and application of fluorinated chemicals. This development aims to overcome the drawbacks associated with multiple production processing steps, hazardous chemicals, delamination, degradation, and reduction in vapor permeability due to adhesive layer, etc. In this work, the one-layer fabric was developed using polyester filament yarn on one surface and polyamide low melt yarn on another surface using plaited knitting technique. Further, the fabric was thermally processed at different conditions to create uniform barrier film through melting and flowing of polyamide yarns on fabric surface. The optimized and efficient thermal processing parameters were determined using Box-Behnken design as 120°C, 30 s and 0.5 MPa which yielded a fabric membrane with air permeability of 33.5 cm3/s/cm2, highest resistance to surface wetting with grade 5, exhibited hydrophobicity with water contact angle (WCA) of 120° and water vapor transmission rate of 875.7 (g/(m2·24 h)). Developed fabric also shows high abrasion resistant which would have increased clothing lifespan and comparable stiffness to commercially available wind stopper and water repellant fabrics.