Abrasion resistance (geotextile) –The ability of the geotextile surface to resist wear by friction.
Acquisition layer – An absorbent layer close to the cover of a non-woven hygiene product (such as a diaper) through which fluid enters. Typically, the fluid is then transmitted to a distribution layer.
Adhesive bonding – Part of a production route for making non-wovens; binders are applied to a web which, when dried, bond the individual fibres to form a coherent sheet.
Aramid – A polyamide (synthetic) fibre of great strength, used for marine, aerospace, automotive and sporting purposes particularly protective clothing.
Binder – An adhesive material used to hold fibres together in a non-woven structure.
Bonded fabric – A non-woven fabric in which the fibres are held together by a bonding material. This may be an adhesive or a bonding fibre with a low melting point. Alternatively, the material may be held together by stitching.
Breaking strength (geotextiles) – The ultimate tensile strength of a geotextile per unit width.
Breathe ability – The ability of a fabric, coating or laminate to transfer water vapour from one of its surfaces through the material to the other surface.
Cable – To twist together two or more folded yarns.
Canvas – A plain weave usually made from cotton or linen.
Carding – The disentanglement, cleaning and intermixing of fibres to produce a continuous web or sliver suitable for subsequent processing. This is achieved by passing the fibres between moving pins, wires or teeth.
Composite – A product formed by intimately combining two or more discrete physical phases – usually a solid matrix, such as a resin, and a fibrous reinforcing component.
Core-spun yarn - Yarn consisting of an inner core yarn surrounded by staple fibres. A core-spun yarn combines the strength and/or elongation of the core thread and the characteristics of the staple fibres which form the surface.
Fabric – A manufactured assembly of fibres and/or yarns which has substantial surface area in relation to its thickness, and holds together well enough to give it useful mechanical strength. Fabrics are most commonly woven or knitted, but can be produced by felting, net-making, lace making, nonwoven processes of tufting.
Felting – The matting together of fibres during processing. This is achieved on animal hair or wool by the application of moisture or heat, which causes the constituent fibres to mat together.
Flame retardant – A substance added or a treatment applied to a material in order to suppress, significantly reduce or delay the propagation of flame.
Fibre – A material used to make textiles which is flexible, fine, and has a high ratio of length to thickness
Filament – A fibre of indefinite length
Fire retardant – A substance added, or a treatment applied to a fabric in order to reduce or delay the combustion of the fabric
Geotextile – A permeable textile cloth used in contact with soil or rock as part of a civil engineering operation.
Hollow fibres – Melt-spun fibres extruded through special spinnerets to produce fibres with one or more holes down their length. Such fibres are good insulators and give warmth without adding weight.
Industrial Textiles – A category of technical textiles used as part of an industrial process, or incorporated into final products.
Knitting – The process of forming a fabric by the intermeshing of loops of yarn.
Man-made Fibre – A fibre which is manufactured rather than occurring naturally. Man-made fibres can be further divided into: cellulosic or artificial fibres, which are made from naturally occurring polymers such as wool pulp, and synthetic fibres, which are made from chemically derived polymers.
Membrane – A polymer film incorporated in a garment to make it waterproof.
Microfibre – A fibre approximately below 1 decitex. Some commercial fibres or filaments as coarse as 1.3 decitex are classified as micro fibres by their producers.
Monitoring Apparel – Garments that have integrated electronic sensing systems that can monitor body signals e.g. heart rate.
Nanotechnologies – Nanotechnology comprises technological developments on the nanometer scale, usually 0.1 to 100 nm. (One nanometer equals one thousandth of a micrometer or one millionth of a millimetre.)
Needle-punching – A process for making a nonwoven textile in which a continuous mat of randomly laid fibres or filaments is entangled with barbed needles. This cause matting and the production of a “felt” textile.
Nonwoven (according to ISO 9092:1988) – A manufactured sheet, web or batt of directionally or randomly orientated fibres, bonded by friction and/or cohesion and/or adhesion, excluding paper and products which are woven, knitted, tufted, stitch bonded incorporating binding yarns or filaments, or felted by wet-milling, whether or not additionally needled.
Permeability – The ability of a textile to allow air or water vapour to pass through it. Pigment dyeing: a process used to give garments a characteristic "washed out" or weathered look, while offering good light- and wash-fastness and reasonable crocking (wet-rub) resistance.
Polyamide – A synthetic polymer (man-made fibre) most commonly known as Nylon, also as aramid.
Polyester – A synthetic polymer (man-made fibre) - the earliest synthetic fibre produced.
Polymer – A long molecule made up of many smaller repeat molecules; the following polymers are the main ones used to make synthetic fibres – polyacrylic, polyamide (nylon), polyester, polypropylene, polyurethane.
Smart materials – Materials that respond to an external stimuli e.g. temperature or light, changing in some way. Such materials have a memory, as they remember to revert back to their original state.
Spinning – The process of producing a yarn from fibre.
Synthetic Fibres – Man-made fibres made from a polymer that has been produced artificially, in contrast to fibres made from naturally occurring polymers such as cellulose. The term synthetic fibres are also used to refer to synthetic filaments.
Technical Textiles – Textile materials and products manufactured primarily for their technical performance and functional properties rather than their aesthetic or decorative characteristics.
Thermal bonding – Part of a production route for making nonwovens. To do this, a web, which must contain some meltable synthetic fibres, is heated by a hot gas or by calendaring. The fibres are then melted down which then form inter-fibre bonds.
Ultraviolet stability (geotextiles) – The ability of a geotextile to retain strength upon exposure to ultraviolet light over a specified period.
Weave – To thread spun fibres in and out, either by hand on a hand loom, or by machine on a mechanical loom, to make cloth.
