Ice PRO - Ice Oxygen Bar Fiber, Ice Algae Fiber

What exactly is "Ice Silk"? Learn more about Ice Silk PRO - Ice Oxygen Bar, Ice Alginate Fiber

    With the summer heat already upon us, coolness and comfort is one of the most important needs for consumers to choose their clothing. In recent years, many businesses have been pushing the concept of "Ice Silk" in the summer, claiming that it can make the wearer feel cooler. So, what is the principle of this material and how does it make us cooler?

    01

    Ice silk is indeed cool, but only for a while

    In fact, there is no national standard and textile industry standard to clearly define the concept of "ice silk", "ice silk" is only a marketing name. According to research on the market "ice silk" clothing, it can be found that most of these fabrics are made of viscose fiber (often called rayon or rayon), polyester (also known as polyester), nylon (also known as nylon) and other chemical fibers woven.

    Here, a textile terminology must be proposed - contact instant cool feeling. The national standard GB/T 35263-2017 "textile contact instant cool sensation performance testing and evaluation" defines "contact instant cool sensation" as "the instant of contact between the skin and the fabric below its temperature, causing a rapid loss of heat from the skin surface, the temperature drops instantly, and then through the skin temperature-sensitive The nerve endings in the skin reflect to the brain after the formation of cool sensation.

    It can be seen that, lower than the skin temperature of the fabric and human skin contact, the human body will produce contact instant cool feeling, this time is relatively short, may last only just put on the body that a few seconds, dozens of seconds or a few minutes of time, once the fabric temperature and the body's temperature is very close, the two reached thermal equilibrium, this cool feeling disappeared.

    The principle of contact cool feeling is the heat transfer, human body temperature is higher than the temperature of the fabric, when the two occur in contact, heat transfer from the body to the surface of the fabric, causing the body temperature to decrease.

    Then why some fabrics touch up, there will be more obvious contact with the instant cool feeling? Generally speaking, there are several reasons.

(1) the large thermal conductivity of the fiber material brings the fabric contact instant cool feeling will be more obvious, the greater the thermal conductivity, the more rapid heat transfer when the body is in contact with the fabric. In common use of ordinary textile fibers, nylon thermal conductivity is the highest, polyester thermal conductivity is also relatively high. Adding nano-like powder of minerals such as jade or mica in trace amount to the fiber, using the characteristics of good thermal conductivity of these minerals and slow heat absorption, can enhance the cool feeling function of the fiber.

(2) flat and smooth fabric to bring the contact instant cool feeling will also be more obvious, flat and smooth fabric surface contact area is larger, faster heat dissipation rate.

3) from the finishing technology, the use of cool finishing agent on the surface of the fabric, also by increasing the rate of heat transfer to improve the cool feeling at the moment of contact.

    However, as mentioned above, although these fabrics can make people "cool for a while", but this cool feeling will often pass quickly. The good thing is, we have a number of ways to keep us cooler for a little longer.

    Not only cool for a while, but also cool for a summer

    Consumers in the summer purchase of clothing and bedding, not just rely on the cool feeling when touching the fabric to decide, should pay more attention to whether the fabric has a continuous heat dissipation function, to achieve continuous heat dissipation function in three main ways: moisture wicking, heat transfer fast and external physical cooling, you can also combine a variety of methods.

    The following is a brief explanation of examples.

    There are many products that use moisture wicking methods to continuously dissipate heat, which can be divided into two categories: natural fibers and chemical fibers.

    Let's start with the natural fibers in the hemp fiber, which is a preferred natural material for summer clothing, like linen, Chinese hemp, rooibos is a good choice. Linen, for example, linen fiber is good moisture absorption, good moisture conduction and perspiration, and has a natural antibacterial deodorant function. The cross-section of the fiber presents irregular polygonal, cellulose cells within the structure of the middle cavity, arranged in a parallel manner, through the fiber in the pectin and other adhesion together.

    This fiber external irregular structure and internal cavity structure, help to form a capillary effect, accelerate the rate of moisture conduction and perspiration, sweat evaporates on the surface of the fiber to absorb the surrounding heat, so that the body feels cool and comfortable, used in clothing or bedding are more comfortable.

Linen fiber cross-section and fiber longitudinal morphology under the microscope

    Microscopic linen fiber longitudinal hollow form

    The moisture wicking function of chemical fibers is achieved by shaped cross-sections to enhance the capillary effect. For example, hollow fibers, cross-sectional fibers, triangular-sectional fibers, etc., are a common way to enhance the function of moisture wicking and diffusion of body heat in fabrics. The artificial physical modification of shaped cross-section chemical fibers will help to form the capillary effect, making the speed of moisture conduction and wicking faster, while the shaped cross-section increases the specific surface area of the fiber, making the evaporation rate of sweat faster, making the body feel dry and cool.

    This type of fiber is a class of polyester fiber series with excellent moisture wicking function, commonly used in sports knitwear. For example, some fibers have a cross-shaped cross section with four grooves on the surface, which accelerates the diffusion and evaporation of sweat from the body surface to the fabric surface. There are also jade and seaweed particles are finely ground and spun by the patented technology of nuclear shell structure compounding the two types of materials to produce multi-functional fiber products that allow the wearer to fully enjoy ice-cool skin. Typical fiber products are ice oxygen bar fiber and ice algae mud fiber, which have permanent cool feeling, anti-bacterial and anti-bacterial, release negative ions and anti-mite function.

Introduction to the function of ice oxygen bar fiber

Ice algae fiber function profile

    And now there are some coolers on the market, which are woven with ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fibers. Because of their fast fiber heat transfer and smooth surface, they have a continuous cool feeling similar to bamboo coolers in an environment below body temperature.

    Clothing equipped with external cooling equipment can also cool the body. For example, equipped with a liquid cooling system or air cooling system and external power supply of a single soldier combat uniforms, can give soldiers in the hot environment to provide lasting cooling; designed with an ice bag insert pocket undershirt can be placed multiple ice bags, the body's front chest and back area for rapid cooling, and can be replaced by the ice bag to obtain lasting cooling.

    Textile science is also constantly exploring the use of new fibers, changing the chemical and physical structure of fibers, innovative fabric composition and weave structure, and the use of new finishing techniques to enhance the performance of fabrics to conduct moisture and perspiration. In order to be as comfortable as possible, consumers can purchase clothing based on the use of scenarios to choose the right clothing.

    For example, to go to do a lot of sports, to choose moisture absorption and quick-drying knitted fabrics; summer daily activities in the office (with air conditioning cooler), you can choose cotton fabrics; out of a small number of activities, you can choose cotton and linen blend or viscose fiber and other materials fabrics; if you need to be in the sun, you also need to consider choosing fabrics with strong sun protection function, to protect the skin from sunburn.