November 27, 2020
Tokyo, Japan, November 27, 2020 – Toray Industries, Inc., announced today that it has developed Senbism™ CM, a polyester filament fabric that combines the softness, smoothness, and comfort of synthetic fibers with the natural feel and random unevenness of traditional Japanese paper. The company will recommend the fabric for an array of apparel uses, from casual medium-weight fabrics for men’s and women’s outerwear to cut-and-sewn apparel, broadening the horizons of upmarket fashions in Japan and overseas markets. The company plans to commercialize Senbism™ CM from Spring/Summer 2022.
Unlike conventional fabrics, Senbism™ CM can match the Japanese paper features that inspired it. That is because Toray employed NANODESIGN™, its conjugate spinning technology, to develop a flat C cross-sectional shape that delivers a precise arrangement of three different polymers.
Using NANODESIGN™, Toray created a special cross-sectional structure in which it has arranged polymers with different heat shrinkage properties in special shapes on the left and right of a flat cross section, with a soluble polymer in the fiber center.
Toray heat treated polymers on the left and right side of the fiber to bend along the fiber. This, coupled with a flat shape, creates a unique twist, and stretch. Varying the arrangement and shape of the polymer with adjacent fibers generates different torsional structures for each yarn, resulting in a yarn bundle structure containing complex voids.
A yarn bundle structure produces a random unevenness in the fabric texture, so it feels like hand-made Japanese paper. Single yarns comprising polymers with different colorations and dyeability cover the fabric without aligning, for attractive fluctuations like those of Japanese paper. Senbism™ CM is eco-friendly, as one of its polymer is recycled from film scraps.
In designing Senbism™ CM, Toray created a hollow structure inside the fiber by placing a soluble polymer within, augmenting yarn bundle voids from filament twisting during relaxing and weight reduction process on textile. This hollow portion imparts a lightness and resilient feel to the fabric. A precisely designed slit keeps functional agents within the fiber, making it possible to incorporate a range of features in the fabric.
As people learn to live with COVID-19, better living is increasingly as important in fashion as appearance. It will become more important than ever in manufacturing to combine advanced functionality for comfort with sustainability for peace of mind.
Toray will continue supplying innovative technologies and advanced materials to cater to increasingly diverse lifestyles and better living.
NANODESIGN™ is an innovative conjugate spinning technology developed by Toray Industries, INC (Toray). Nano-level control of the fineness and shape of the synthetic fibers enables functions, aesthetics and textures never seen before. With this technology, Toray will create textile products
That will change the world.