How to keep warm
Winter is coming. Thermal insulation is an essential feature of winter clothing. As we all know, insulating fabrics are designed to lock in heat through a range of technologies and designs to withstand the cold of winter. But many people don’t know how to keep warm, and the next will reveal the origin, principle and some methods of insulation fabrics.
The origin of Thermal Fabric
The origins of insulating fabrics can be traced back to the earliest times when humans began to inhabit them. At that time, people already knew how to use natural materials for insulation. With the progress of the times and the development of industrialization, people have begun to pay attention to the improvement and research and development of thermal insulation materials. However, with the progress of science and technology and the improvement of people’s requirements for clothing performance, the dominance of traditional materials such as wool and down is not stable, and new insulation fabrics are emerging. For example, polyester fiber, as an important chemical fiber material, is widely used in insulation cotton products. In addition, some companies have also developed insulation fabrics with special functions, such as smart insulation cotton with temperature regulation function, insulation cotton products made with environmentally friendly alternative fibers, etc. For example, since 2012, Japan’s UNITICA company has been developing imitation natural fabric products made of woven and functional yarns, which has further improved the thermal insulation performance of ready-to-wear garments and made them more comfortable to wear, and the company’s annual sales in 2012 increased by 10% year-on-year.
Surprisingly, the principle of insulation is simple. It is to reduce the speed of exchange between the body’s heat and the cold air outside, so as to achieve the effect of keeping warm.
Methods of Thermal Fabric
There are many ways to achieve the insulation effect, which can be roughly divided into two categories: materials and technologies. First, let’s talk about insulation. The first is to use materials such as graphene film and reflective film to reflect back the heat of the human body, so as to retain a comfortable warm temperature. For example, the uniforms of the Winter Olympics were made of heat-reflective fabrics to help keep the human body warm by reflecting the body’s own long-wave heat. Effectively maintain the stable thermal internal circulation of the whole uniform. Second, the emergence of new insulation materials such as aerogel and poly-thermal cotton has also greatly helped us to lock in heat and significantly improve the warmth effect. Aerogel has very low thermal conductivity and excellent thermal insulation, Applying it to cold-prone parts of clothing (e.g., knees, décolletage, etc.) can significantly improve warmth. For example, Supai thermal clothing uses aerogel to lock in the temperature of the cold-prone areas to effectively resist the cold outside; The heat accumulation cotton can increase the heat loss barrier effect by 20%, helping the human body to instantly heat up and long-term heat storage. Thirdly, the internal fibers can also be optimized for insulation. The fineness of the fine denier fiber is small, and the thermal radiation penetration ability is weak, so the heat is not easy to lose. The outer layer of double-sided velvet is dense, and the pores between the inner fibers are large, and fine denier fibers or special double-sided velvet can be used to increase temperature.
The other is to achieve the effect of heat preservation through specific techniques. On the one hand, the thermal insulation effect is achieved through the unique three-dimensional composite structure design. Just like the 3D striped down jacket fabric uses two layers of TPU film, through seamless line hot melt pressing technology, it forms a concave and convex high-quality 3D effect, so that the hot air flow circulates in the clothes and forms a hot gas circulation. On the other hand, waterproof and moisture permeable can ensure that the fabric allows the water vapor inside the human body to be discharged while preventing the entry of moisture from the outside, thus keeping the inside dry and warm, which can also be seen as an effective water and moisture repellent. Finally, there is the self-heating technology, which can choose between volcanic rock fibers and far-red self-heating particles. Volcanic rock fiber fabric can store heat and keep warm, plus the strong thermal resistance of the fabric itself, forming a strong thermal layer; The far-infrared self-heating particles will heat up and heat up when they are in contact with the human body, so as to improve the heat preservation effect.
In summary, insulation fabrics are designed to lock in heat through a variety of technologies and designs to withstand the cold of winter. These technologies and designs include reflective heating, three-dimensional structure design, waterproof and moisture-permeable technology, new material application, fiber optimization, and self-heating technology. In practical applications, suitable insulation fabrics and garments can be selected according to specific needs and scenarios.
