Fire retardant fabric fibres: inside polyester
Back to overview September 24, 2021

Fire retardant fabric fibres: inside polyester

Synthetic fibres offer many bonuses over natural fibres, especially in the contract project market. Today we focus in on polyester fibres and why our inherently fire-retardant fabrics use them.

Let’s get started.

A quick look at natural and synthetic fibres

‘Natural’ fibres like linen and cotton are textiles created from what is called a ‘fibre crop’. They are both woven from the fibres of plants.

Synthetic (man-made) fibres make up fabrics such as acrylic, nylon, rayon, and polyester.

Fabrics made from natural fibres are typically more expensive and labour intensive to produce. However, synthetic fibres offer many bonuses over natural fibres, especially in our contract project market.

Fabric made from synthetic fibres: why polyester?

When a fabric is ‘inherently fire-retardant’ the flame retardancy will last for the entire life of the fabric as it has been woven into the fabric fibre itself. FR-One guarantees safety and performance by using strictly 100% Inherently FR Polyester for this reason.

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Polyester fibres: durable contract fabrics

The first benefit of polyester fibres is that they make fabric that is both easy to care for and durable. It’s resistant to wrinkling and abrasions, making for fantastic fabrics for high-traffic environments. In contrast, in their pure forms, cotton and linen do not make for upholstery that’s durable or easily maintained.

We ensure that our 100% polyester fabrics are high performers through rigorous testing in independent textiles laboratories. We assess our fabrics for their fire-retardant properties, as well as durability, colour fastness, stability, and strength. Learn more about the textiles testing that FR-One fabrics undergo: some of the tests might surprise you, such as the sound absorption ones.

Washing fire retardant contract fabrics

We also went for 100% polyester fibres because we can guarantee that all FR-One fabrics are machine washable. Not only this, but that the efficacy of the fire-retardant properties in the fabric won't fade due to washing.

Plus, unlike ‘natural fabrics’ such as wool or cotton, polyester doesn’t shrink after washing. This results in our fabrics being washable at high temperatures, even up to 74° Celsius /160° Fahrenheit, a hot wash temperature cited as the American Hospital Washing Standard.

Learn more: Help stop the spread of germs with FR-One Fabrics.

From an ecological point of view, our fabrics woven from polyester fibres also use less water to wash compared to cotton or linen fabrics, thanks to their lower water absorption rate and higher dehydration characteristics.

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Transparency is in our fibres

It all begins with the details: even with the fabric fibres themselves.

Everything FR-One does is tested, measured, and certified. All of the FR certifications of our fabrics is obtained not only in our own textiles laboratory, but in independent laboratories worldwide to ensure total compliance and transparency.

We also measure the mechanical performance of our fabrics by testing these in external labs too.

Why keep to such high standards?

Higher quality fabrics last longer, reducing the need of our customers to go opt for disposable solutions that are ultimately harming our planet. Quality, when combined with technical excellence, is a long-term solution for a better world.

We are ready to support your specification needs when it comes to a more thoughtful future.

Contact us to get started.

 

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