What makes up spandex

So valuable is DuPont's spandex technology that it was the subject of an extortion attempt 10 years ago. After a globe-trotting chase that included stops in Wilmington, Del. The operation went awry, but the Swiss police ended up nabbing the extortionists on the rebound in a Geneva parking lot. Ladies' foundation garments are still the foundation of the spandex business, reports Robert L. Kirkwood, DuPont Lycra end use research manager.

Spandex started a boom in the s, ushering in an era of "comfortable, soft-support pantyhose and other intimate apparel. In the s, cyclists traded in their woolen shorts for "aerodynamic" spandex shorts, and the versatile fiber began to find its way into dancewear, tights, and stretch jeans.

By the s, Kirkwood says, spandex had a commanding presence in hosiery, and the fiber enlarged its presence among champion and amateur athletes who donned spandex garments to improve their performance if not their appearance. Indeed, fashion has played a hand in the wider use of spandex.

As pop singer Madonna started a trend in the '80s to wear innerwear as outerwear and sports-looks translated into new street-wear fashions, Chanel couture skirts set fashion trends with the use of spandex in leggings.

Spandex fabrics are mostly used in garments where comfort and fit both are required like hosiery, swimsuits, exercise wear, socks, surgical hose, undergarments, gloves, cycling shorts, wrestling suits, rowing suits, specialized clothing like zentai suits, motion capture suits, denims, etc. Sports apparel and accessories industry particularly make use of spandex in making many items. Spandex garments are perfect for athletes and cyclists, as it helps to reduce any resistance to wind.

This makes it an ideal garment for competitive cyclists and runners. Spandex fabric is also known to provide support due to which sport bras are produced using this fabric. Spandex is not only used in sport garments but even used for manufacturing sport accessories like volleyballs and soccer balls. Just as spandex is useful for apparel industry, similarly it is also favorable for the industrial applications.

Items made from rubber are now made with spandex. Medical industry is using spandex instead of latex in producing many products such as rubber tubing, hosing and knee or back braces. It is also used in producing household products like fitted sheets and microbead pillows. One of the lesser known uses of spandex is for interior decoration and event planning. For example, spandex fabric is used for table coverings and latex chair coverings.

Instead of the conventional table cloth, a well fitted spandex table covering will give a modern look to the dining area. Nowadays, chair covering and chair bands made from spandex are more used as cloth shrinks after long use, while spandex fabric fits perfectly and can be used for a long time. Disadvantages of Spandex. As discussed earlier, there are many advantages of spandex fabric with its flexibility, durability, comfort, fit and so on.

However, it also has few disadvantages. Spandex material is not a breathable fabric and traps moisture, sweat, bad odor within the garment which may lead to skin infection. These issues can be removed by combining cotton or other breathable materials with spandex.

Spandex is very sensitive to heat due its chemical formation and does not absorb liquid. Hence, washing spandex in hot water, using iron or machine drying can permanently damage the fabric. Further, the smooth and slippery surface of spandex creates lack of friction, which may sometimes pose risk to the wearer. Blending spandex with other fibers will resolve most of its disadvantages. Hence, one can find variety of garments in blend with spandex in the stores.

Spandex has come out far from its origin days and has become the most popular fiber on fashion front today. Whether it is sportswear or men's suits, bed linens to shoes, women's wear to medical products, this fiber has captured every field and is in great demand globally. Current market trends. There are upcoming new projects in China that will cater to the country's rapidly growing demand for spandex. At present, a Korean company is the largest spandex producer in the world.

Spandex can be used bare, with no processing before inclusion in the hosiery and Spandex fabrics. A simple Spandex thread is added woven into to the structure created by the main flat or textured thread. Another production technique is knitting bare or covered Spandex yarn within the garment. It is generally used in alternate rows of knit yarn.

Finally, the covered yarn can be used in every row - in every thread of the knit - for three dimensional stretch. Covered Spandex is also used. The covering involves wrapping the Spandex in the main yarn in the nylon hosiery, so that the Spandex becomes the yarn core. The more turns, the higher the quality. Double covered : the Spandex yarn is wrapped in two layers of nylon or other fabric, one clockwise and the other anticlockwise.

It is used in yarn intended for the production of high quality sheer tights. Air covered : Spandex in tension and texturised nylon are passed together through a jet of air, interlacing the nylon at intervals to Spandex core.

Core-spun : during the yarning process the Spandex is covered with a coating of discontiunuous fibres. The bare Spandex thread is used in standard products. Stretch performance is reduced but enables the production of super-sheer tights. Covered Spandex is intended for the high and medium market segments - in fact, the more the Spandex is protected, the more long-lasting and expensive the tights are.

The garment is also very soft to the touch. Its essential characteristic is high elasticity and elastic recovery, which remained unchanged over time. In other words, Spandex thread can stretch to over eight times its original length and return instantaneously to its initial configuration as soon as the tension is released.

Fit and comfort are the primary and most generally-appreciated results of this property.