MUNICH – New patent-pending technology used to treat fabrics automatically cools clothing when the user gets too hot. The smart new solution sees an instant cooling hydro functional polymer activated when the wearer reaches a certain temperature. Ideal for sports and outwear apparel, trials of the technology have shown a 1.5°C to 2.5°C cooler skin temperature for users wearing treated fabric.
Swiss textile innovator HeiQ has developed the technology, which is an upgraded version of its dynamic cooling technology HeiQ Smart Temp. HeiQ Adaptive AC-06 is based on an instant cooling hydro functional polymer that is activated when the skin temperature exceeds a range between 28°C and 32°C and deactivated once cooling is complete.
It uses two actions to keep the body at the desired or optimum temperature. Before the first sign of sweat on fabric, a melting action is activated, sending instant-cooling impulses directly to the skin. Then, when the heat is increases, a vaporizing action transports sweat away from the body, reducing the skin’s temperature by 1.5°C to 2.5°C (2.7°F to 4.5°F) compared to an untreated fabric sample according to tests.
In-house thermoregulation performance testing revealed high reduction rates of the skin temperature measured over a certain time by utilising a thermal imaging infrared (FLIR) camera. The FLIR camera set-up imitated the human skin while sweating at different levels of activity. “In contrast to the Dynamic Evaporation testing, the FLIR camera measurement allows us to quickly though accurately visualise the temperature change of a fabric treated with HeiQ Smart Temp, for example compared to an untreated fabric sample,” said HeiQ’s chief technology officer, Walter Nassl.
From its launch in 2011, the intelligent thermoregulation technology HeiQ Smart Temp has grown to one of the market leading dynamic cooling technologies. More than 50 major brands globally on more than 500 million garments use HeiQ’s most popular technology in their products spanning the application scope from basic apparel and sportswear to home textiles.
