Comfort and wellness are mega-trends in today's textile and apparel industry. Several innovative products and concepts have been developed to meet the growing demand for comfort, freshness and care, and to create sustainable value for the entire textile value creation chain Some of the products are given here for the interest of our readers.

SkintexTM Care System

"Active" articles of clothing are fully in keeping with the trend. Whether it is a question of stockings, underwear or sportswear, cosmetic ingredients incorporated in the textiles can make a contribution to your personal sense of well-being. Clothing that has been treated with SkintexTM contains vitamins which relax the skin and supply it with needed moisture. Depending on the active ingredient, these clothes, when worn, can prevent the formation of cellulite, delay hair growth on the legs or encourage the skin to turn brown spontaneously. Cognis' SkintexTM Care System is based on micro-capsules. The core of these consists of active ingredients, which are surrounded by a natural polymer. The capsules are worked into the garment; on coming into contact with the skin, they release their active ingredients slowly and on a continuous basis.

Microban Antibacterial Protection

In cooperation with Microban Int., Ltd., Cognis offers a range for built-in freshness and care in textiles. Microban is built-in during the normal manufacturing process and keeps textiles fresher and more hygienic during washing. Incorporated into a textile, Microban Antibacterial Protection continuously checks the growth of a wide range of odour-causing and harmful bacteria on fabrics and textiles.

Superclear® X-TRA

This new development by Cognis for pigment colouring and printing enhances both the washing properties and resistance to rubbing of the material, as well as the comfort of wearing the garment. Textiles, that are coloured or printed with Superclear, are exceptionally soft to touch, as in comparison with standard pigmentation methods there is less binding agent used. At the same time there is a minimal use of auxiliary agents like fixative accelerants, fixatives or cross-linking agents in the printing paste. This yields economic benefits in the production process: the shorter time needed to fix the pigmentation enhances the capacity of the fixation machine, and so reduces energy consumption.

ColetteTM System

The innovative ColetteTM System makes it possible to selectively remove pectins and to carry out desizing or polishing in a single working procedure. This means that the costs of the process as a whole can be considerably reduced. As compared with the traditional alkaline boiling-off process the quantity of chemicals that are needed - and hence also the contamination of the waste water - is significantly less. ColetteTM, a combination of several enzymes, offers optimal results while having a minimum impact on the environment. This means a considerable optimization of the entire pre-treatment chain.

ILDTM Inline Dosing System

The latest generation of ILD is a highly precise, computerized in-line system for dosing and measuring almost any type of liquid finishing agent. The application generates cost savings by controlling the entire pad, hence eliminating the intermediate drying and handling operations between dry-on-wet and wet-on-wet finishing. Moreover, individual softener head tank mixes are now obsolete. The system is programmed to ratio the softener and water at startup and to ratio softener into the pad if fresh water is called for. The ILD system guarantees a constant bath concentration of chemicals.

Seclarin DOS-CON

Hydrogen peroxide based bleaching processes achieve results for the textile industry that are both ecologically sound and flexible in the definition of process parameters. However, to ensure maximum economy in the use of chemicals, effective monitoring of caustic soda and hydrogen peroxide is imperative. Seclarin DOS-CON is an online analysis system, developed for the automatic measurement of NaOH and H2O2 concentrations. Samples are taken without interruption & analyzed in seconds, optimizing chemicals consumption and process efficiency. The device can be coupled with automatic metering systems. Seclarin DOS-CON improves productivity by reducing chemicals consumption, fewer downgradings, and fewer errors due to the elimination of manual tasks.s