Source: New Cloth Market

Introduction:

In this article, we will deal with the chemistryof coatings and their application to various coated technical textiles thatate in use. It will leave the reader to make use of the many excellentreviews, which are referenced in this article, for details of individual items.

Chemistry of en a ted textiles

Coatings used in the production of technicaltextiles are largely limited to those products that can he produced in the formof a viscous liquid, which can be spread on the surface of a substrate.

This process is followed by a drying or curingprocess, which hardens the coating so that a non-blocking product is produced.Thus the coatings for these products are limited to linear polymers, which canbe coated as a polymer melt or solution and on cooling form a solid film orform a solid film by evaporation of the solvent.

There are some types of coatings that can heapplied in the liquid form and then chemically crosslinked to form a solidfilm.

The coatings used in technical textiles are allthermoplastic polymers, which are long chain linear molecules, some of whichhave the ability to crosslink.

The properties of these polymeric materialsdirectly influence the durability and performance of the end product.Therefore, some description of these materials is necessary.

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The Author is associated with Department of Textiles,Faculty of Technology, Bolton Institute, UK

Originally published in New Cloth Market: April 2010