Industry Perspective: "Super Imitation Cotton" Opens New Space For Chemical Fiber

cotton Price As for the development of "super Imitation cotton" products, the rise is both Opportunity Also Challenge 。 Opportunity is market The space is big, the challenge is that the technology is difficult and the development route is long. Through the close combination of production, teaching and research, chemical fiber, textile, printing and dyeing, clothing and other enterprises, the government and trade associations will achieve "large-scale Imitation cotton" products to achieve large-scale industrial production.

Cotton is an important material related to the national economy and the people's livelihood. Cotton fiber is an important raw material for the textile industry. Cotton fiber has excellent moisture absorption, softness, warmth retention and gloss. Its wearability is excellent, but there are still problems in moisture conductivity, dehumidification, antifouling, water proofing and mould proofing.

The large-scale industrialization of China's polyester industry started in the early 80s of last century, and its development was stronger than that in the middle of last century. At present, China has become the first country in the production and consumption of polyester. In the face of the limited supply of cotton resources and the situation that polyester production capacity is relatively surplus, according to the demand of modern consumers for the convenience, comfort, health, fashion and other characteristics of clothing, combined with the technical characteristics of polyester and its fabrics differentiation and functionalization, the industry has developed and promoted "super Imitation cotton" fibers and products.

The "super Imitation cotton" product has the following characteristics popularly: it looks like cotton (vision), feels like cotton (tactile), wears like cotton (affinity) super cotton (comfort), is easier to use than cotton (washable and wearable), and has excellent properties of cotton and polyester, so as to achieve the effect of Imitation cotton like cotton and cotton imitation cotton. Scientifically speaking, it has the following characteristics: "super Imitation cotton" products should ensure the excellent softness and warmth retention of cotton, and also have good mechanical properties, heat resistance, color fastness, even antistatic, anti pilling, antibacterial, flame-retardant, far infrared, UV resistant and other functions. With the improvement of the technology level of imitation and super cotton, the added value of products will increase correspondingly or even increase exponentially.

Compared with the previous development of single differential technology or single functional product, the research and development of "super Imitation cotton" products are obviously different. First of all, the object is different from the target. Not only is it close to cotton fabric in shape and fabric style, it is more important that fabric products should imitate cotton and super cotton in appearance and function, especially with good dynamic thermal and moisture comfort. Secondly, R & D technology path is different. Cotton imitation and super cotton technology pay more attention to the integration of multiple differentiation and functional technology, and emphasize the integration of polymerization, spinning, weaving, dyeing and finishing technology.

"Super Imitation cotton" product development has experienced the following stages: the appearance of cotton imitation: changing the size and shape of the cross section; the performance of cotton imitation: improving fiber dyeability and moisture absorption and moisture resistance, and approaching cotton fabric from appearance and handle; functional cotton imitation: the Imitation cotton fabric not only has good handle and wearability, but also surpasses cotton fabric in the aspects of water absorption, moisture absorption, moisture absorption, antistatic, thermal stability, mechanical properties and so on.

There is still a big gap between China's Imitation cotton products and foreign countries, especially in comparison with Japan. The key technology system, product system and standard system of "super Imitation cotton" products such as polymerization, spinning, weaving, dyeing and finishing have not yet formed and need to be strengthened. In fact, more than 20 years ago, Japan made a systematic study of super Imitation cotton chemical fiber and textiles, and had mature technology. China began to develop in 2005, and has risen to a new stage in the past two years.

At the end of 2010, in order to alleviate the contradiction between supply and demand of cotton and effectively utilize excess polyester production capacity, relying on the strategic alliance of chemical fiber industry technology innovation, the Ministry of science and technology first launched the national science and technology support project "super cotton imitation synthetic fiber and its textile industrialization technology" in 12th Five-Year. The project is attended by more than 20 dominant units such as the Chinese Academy of textile science, Donghua University, Yizheng chemical fiber Limited by Share Ltd and Taicang Jinhui chemical fiber industry Co., Ltd.

The goal of the project is to break through the technological innovation of polymerization and modification, fiber processing, weaving and dyeing and finishing technology, break through the technical bottleneck of Imitation cotton polyester fiber, develop key technologies such as multi structure design of cotton imitation polyester fiber, multicomponent controllable polymerization, homogeneous spinning of hydrophilic system, precise control of high degree of fiber shape, Imitation cotton fiber blending, fabric design and processing, and so on; form a cotton imitation polyester fiber industrialization integration technology system, establish scientific evaluation methods and standards for Imitation cotton fiber and products, develop cotton imitation series products, plan to establish or transform four super spinning cotton polyester fiber spinning demonstration lines, two polyester continuous polymerization demonstration lines, eight textile, dyeing and finishing, and fabric production demonstration lines.

In view of the present situation of "super cotton imitation" technology and product development in China, it is suggested that the industry should strengthen the research on the mechanism of dynamic thermal and moisture comfort performance of Imitation cotton fibers and products, clarify product positioning and objectives, and study capillary wicking effect and dynamics, moisture absorption and moisture transfer ability and kinetics of fine denier or super fine denier, hydrophilic copolymerization modification, inorganic blending modification, surface roughening, section profiled fiber and other fabrics, so as to lay a scientific foundation for formulating the testing methods and indicators of cotton imitation and standardizing market behavior.

It is suggested that the industry establish the industrial chain, technology chain and standard chain based on the "1+X" product mode. Among them, "1" is the basic cotton imitation variety, and the key is to achieve the blending ratio with cotton, and change from 65/35 to 35/65. Under the premise of ensuring fabric performance and function, the amount of cotton fiber is reduced, and the application of Imitation cotton fiber is accelerated. At present, the primary task is to clarify the technical system and product standard of the basic varieties, and establish the index system of fiber / filament, yarn / blend and fabric. In addition to conventional performance indicators, it is necessary to clarify the functional indicators of cotton imitation product chain, such as softness, fluffiness, hydrophilicity, hygroscopicity, moisture conductivity, antistatic, anti pilling, moisture regain, etc. Then, on the basis of this, we strengthen the functional indicators to form "X" series of product indicators, including the development of antistatic, antibacterial, flame retardant, far-infrared, UV protection and other functions "super Imitation cotton" products. At the same time, we should make full use of the advantages of filament processing to promote the development and popularization of cotton imitation cotton technology and products.

The rise of cotton prices is both an opportunity and a challenge to the development of "super cotton imitation" technology and products. Opportunity is the market space is big, the challenge is the difficulty of technology and the long development route. I believe that in line with the scientific and rigorous attitude, through the close combination of production, teaching and research, chemical fiber, textile, printing and dyeing, clothing and other enterprises, the government and trade associations will achieve the large-scale industrial production.