Tough on the outside, soft on the inside. That’s a fitting description of the Peppermint Group’s EcoJacket. In a future study, textile engineers from the Advanced Materials Competence Centre (AMCC) joined professional recyclers to demonstrate that their innovative Triwitex yarn construction represents a huge step towards a sustainable future for the textile industry. The concept aims to combine two previously incompatible worlds.

Durability and recyclability: sustainable textiles at the highest technological level

 The Peppermint Group has developed a spinning process that's been long awaited – not only by fashion and environmentally-conscious consumers but also by the sharing economy. Renting furniture instead of repeatedly buying new items only works if the upholstery fabric, for example, doesn’t show signs of wear after just a couple of months. For such business models to be profitable, there must be durable textiles that can withstand as many care cycles as possible. This saves raw materials and reduces the carbon footprint. The only way of doing this until now has been to mix predominantly petrochemical-based synthetic fibres with natural materials.

 The Peppermint Group is now achieving the same durability effect using biogenic materials. Biopolymers can help to rebalance the carbon cycle, offering a promising approach to a post-fossil fuel future. The plants in the biosphere that form the basis for these synthetic materials absorb CO2 during photosynthesis. This absorbed carbon is used to produce biogenic materials and is released again after use.

 In order to use these innovative raw materials to meet the high demands of the rented textile industry, biogenic materials are combined with an innovative spinning process.

 The Triwitex spinning process is a patented technology of the Peppermint Group. The Group’s subsidiary, Zwickauer Kammgarnspinnerei, uses this process to spin this special yarn from a wide variety of materials. This produces significantly improved usage properties in all material blends over conventional spinning processes. The yarn’s performance results from the intelligent positioning of fine filaments. The potential offered by this spinning technology gets visible, especially in knitted fabrics. While garments knitted from traditional yarn are highly susceptible to pilling, Triwitex quality results in hardly any change. When comparing the two qualities, this added value becomes very clear:

 Thanks to this Triwitex spinning process, blends made from natural materials featuring biopolymers also achieve performance ranges that were previously reserved for petrochemical polymers. The resulting Triwitex yarns made from wool and PBS (polybutylene succinate) demonstrated strengths similar to those of blends made from the same ratio of PES and wool. These were three times stronger than conventionally spun varieties.

 In their future study, the AMCC experts conclude that the EcoJacket is an initial step towards establishing these promising, natural materials in all textile applications. Triwitex gives ecological yarns the necessary durability to excel in every area!

Oliver Dorn