Feb 2015 HTC APPEARS IN AN ARTICLE OF THE TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE AITEX MAGAZINE IN SEPTEMBER 2014, IN THE SECTION “CASES OF SUCCESS”.
Download the full article in PDF from the Technological Institute AITEX magazine.
Technologically advanced yarn implementation in the carpets and rugs production process.
Aitex Research Group in New Materials and Sustainability.
The human being has 5 senses Which help us to know and to connect ourselves with our environment; they are the taste, the sight, the smell, the hearing and the touch. The organs of our senses catch impressions which are transmitted to the brains and this-one translates them into sensations. With the sight we remark what is happening in our surrounding, with the taste we recognize the flavors, with the nose we smell what is near us; with the hearing we listen all the sounds and with the touch we recognize things bi touching them.
In this way, the Company Hilaturas Textiles Crevillente, S.A.L., in co-operation with AITEX and in the framework of an investigation project and technological development financed by the CDTI (Center for the Industrial Technological Development) has developed a spun yarn technologically advanced, that after its implementation in the carpets and rugs production process, generates in the final user a concrete sensation as a consequence of the stimulation of 3 human senses: the seeing, the smell and the touch. That way, we expect that the SENSINGFIL products become in articles of reference in their market, because of the multiple functions showed by themselves, their differential character and by their complex manufacture.
Project goal and results
The SENSIGFIL project main goal has been the research and further development of spun yarns with functional capacity and sensorial stimulation, able to be applied in the rugs production or textile flooring with a high added value.
For this purpose Hilaturas Textiles Crevillente (HTC) has carried out a enthusiastic research to relate stimulation and sensation produced by the yarn, which consisted in studying the colortherapy and aromatherapy, and moreover, the study of the new king of yarns made from functional fibers and a helicoidal structure with high mechanical properties in terms of resilience and recovery ability in its look.
Some colours in the environment help people to make certain activities. For instance, places where the warm colours are dominant, as the oranges or reds, are goods to be active and make sport. While places where the main colours are cold, as the blues or greens, are better for the concentration. The product functionality based in the user’s optical stimulation has required the use of the technique own fundaments known as colortherapy or cromotherapy.
Equally the aromatherapy adds the therapeutic use of the pure aromas for a natural treatment and an important complement to help the restoration of harmony and balance in the organism.
The essential oils have a lot of properties that provoke stimulations in the human being and become themselves in a invaluable element of wellbeing. In the process of smelling functionality of the SENSINGFIL yarns HTC has made use of their own fundaments of the aromatherapy together with the controlled liberation technique of therepeutic essential oils like microcapsules or cyclodextrins.
Please, remark that 2 ways of yarns sensorial functionality were investigated because the addition of colour and aroma have been done on the own yarn with a helicoidal structure and on the staple fiber format in a previous step to the spinning process.
Finally, we would like to focus that in the product functional developing process, we took in consideration the yarn own structure and the blend of fibers of bamboo or wool with other functional fibers. In this occasion, as the goal was to get a long useful life of the systems of controlled liberation of aroma to be applied on the yarn, HTC has researched the production process of a yarn with a high shape memory, whose structure is open enough to lodge inside controlled systems of liberation of aromas. The new king of yarns developed matches the DNA’s double helix structure, as it is a complex structure, with high physical and mechanical properties and with capacity to lodge in its internal side a part of its constitutive elements.
The HTC Company has carried out a great researching and developing work on yarns, where have been checked the addition of systems of controlled liberation of aromas with therapeutic actions to the textiles materials anda parameters of the spinning process to achieve a helicoidal structure that allows to lodge inside the mentioned systems of controlled liberation.
Results and conclusions
The SENSINGFIL project carried out by the Hilaturas Textiles Crevillente Company, got as result the development of functional yarns with helicoidal structure applicable to the carpets and rugs manufacture offering to the final user sensation of high comfort as a result of the controlled stimulation. The valuation of the new SENSIGFIL yarn has got the obtaining of a number of patterns of carpets and/or rugs with the final goal of checking the applicability of yarns with the helicoidal structure and the remaining of the therapeutic aromas after this industrial process.
The value of the aroma, in therms of intensity and durability through the time, has been made with an own methodology designed by Aitex, where 5 voluntaries qualified the aroma dropped form every sample in a subjective way and with steady intervals of time.
We show the developed patterns to prove the applicability of the yarns SESINGFIL in textile substrates like carpets and/or rugs as follows:
PATTERN 1
The Mint used to add aroma of mint to the SENSINGFIL yarn which conforms the Pattern1, adds a refreshing effect on the skin, besides the stimulating aromatic effet and in terms of cromotherapy, the green colour adds harmony and balance, allowing its application to different places like hotels located in Summer holiday destinations where the refreshing effect of the room’s carpet reduces the heat. Besides, it adds a nice aroma and a sensation of harmony and balance.
Additionally, in sales where people can exercise physically, where the user is in continuous movement, Gyms or places where, and in contact with the floor, like the rhythm gymnastic, abdominals, etc. It is remarkable that usually, people make this kind of exercise with clothes that allows the contact of the skin with the carpet or rug.
PATTERN 2
The lavender’s perfume that drops the SENSINGFIL yarn, which preforms the Pattern together with the chromatic stimulation of purple color, adds a relaxing sensation and spirituality. Therefore, this kind of carpet/rug is suitable for places where you can practice yoga, Pilates etc.
In general, in ambiances where it is necessary to get concentration and quietness, peace.
PATTERN 3
In this case, the smell of lavender together with the chromatic stimulation of the pink colour, give a relaxing sensation of elegance, protection and femininity. This kind of rugs would be suitable for pre-maternal medical centers, where the pregnant women can train specific exercises for them or their future babies etc. In general ambiances where it is necessary a peaceful place.
The enthusiastic research done on the spinning process to get a new helicoidal structure got as a result yarns with high mechanical properties in terms of resilience and reliability to get tis shape, offering a nice touch to the final user.
This innovative helicoidal structure allows to lodge inside the controlled liberation systems giving a bigger protection to this kind of molecules as well, and therefore, increasing their time durability.
Javier Galipienso Boj, Technical Director and CEO at HTC:
Our Company focuses to the development of products of a high added value, and the innovation is our main tool to compete with the concurrence.
The SENSINGFIL project success allows us the access to new markets where a product with an added value is welcome. In that way, the typology of SENSINGFIL products ins understood as a trend of articles destined to an exclusive public and with a high acquisitive power.
Project supported by CDTI – Center for the Industrial Technological Development and co-financed by the European Found for the Regional Development (FEDER) through the operative program of R+D+I for the Enterprises benefit – Technological Found.