Preface

Engineered fabrics have attracted the attention of almost all facets of engineering due to their broad acceptability for applications in various fields. It is now the fastest growing sec‐ tor of the textile industry and accounts for almost 19% (10 million tonnes) of the total world fiber consumption of all textile uses. This figure is likely to increase to 14 million tonnes by the year 2025.

The application of engineered fabrics increases day by day in civil engineering, automobile engineering, and healthcare sectors. The current volume of the worldwide market of techni‐ cal textiles is more than \$60 billion in which the share of engineered fabrics is approximately \$30 billion. The average worldwide annual growth rate of technical textiles is expected to be around 4.2% for the period 2015–2020.

The uniqueness and challenge of engineered fabrics lie in the need to understand and apply the principles of textile science and technology to provide solutions for technological prob‐ lems, but also engineering problems. With the emphasis on measurable textile performance in a particular field of application, this requires the technologist to have not only an intricate knowledge of fibers, yarns, and fabrics manufacturing, and textile science and technology, but also an understanding of the application of engineered fabrics. Thus, the consumer of acoustic textiles requires an intricate knowledge of sound and sound amplification, and the medical textile producer the requirements of a consultant, medical practitioner, and nurse. This book attempts to provide a bridge between producer and end-user, and will provide ample opportunity to the reader to understand the importance of engineered fabrics, their science, and technology.

Information in the book is collected from various sectors where engineered fabrics are utiliz‐ ed for technical textiles.

Each of the chapters has been specially prepared and dedicated to address a typical problem of engineered fabrics. This book covers so many developments registered in the field of en‐ gineered fabrics as well as future trends in the principles of manufacture and state-of-the-art constructional specifications, properties, test methods, and standards of the major product areas and applications of engineered fabrics.

A team of dedicated researchers and academicians has contributed a great deal of time, ef‐ fort, and above all special and incredible expertise and experience to the preparation of this book. I wish to extend their sincere thanks to all the authors for their important contribution, patience, and cooperation to complete *Engineered Fabrics*.

In some chapters, typical sections are included with specific material on real case studies. These chapters will provide some research platforms to future researchers. This book in‐ cludes up-to-date coverage on engineered fabrics. Each year exciting and valuable advances are registered in the field of engineered fabrics. While I understand that not all of these are appropriate for discussion in a specific book, I have incorporated the most up-to-date infor‐ mation and exciting, recent advances to maintain accurate descriptions of structures and processes and to illustrate essential points. Specific examples include a geotextile, textiles for acoustic applications, etc., and functions of such engineered fabrics.

The book will serve as a study guide for students that provides learning objectives, study outlines, and learning activities to help their science and engineering undergraduate and postgraduate course content.

This book once again confirms that enthusiasm and affection towards the subject of engi‐ neered fabrics are more important than any other gains. Special thanks are also given to In‐ techOpen for consistent effort and interest in keeping this project alive for a long duration and for having continued faith in the editors.

#### **Professor Mukesh Kumar Singh**

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Introductory Chapter: Engineered Fabrics**

**Introductory Chapter: Engineered Fabrics**

10.5772/intechopen.82717

Engineered fabrics have become the need of present era because the application field of engineered fabrics have spread from automobile sector to aeronautics, marine to geo-engineering, sports items to packaging materials, etc., The present popularity of engineered fabrics is not an incident but it is a long journey which engineered fabrics have completed from triple layer fabrics to three-dimensional fabrics. Engineered fabrics also consists of solution-focused and custom-designed fabrics [1]. These products are also utilized in process industries outside of papermaking such as nonwovens, corrugators, building products, tannery and textile industries. The growth of engineered fabrics is linked with application of both natural as well as manmade fibers. Engineered fabrics are becoming the base for various product developments for wide variety of applications [2]. Engineered fabrics are reaching to touch the 40–45% share of

The supply chain of engineered fabrics follows a long route, starting from manufacturing and selection of appropriate fiber to manufacturing of specialty fabrics for engineering applications [3]. Although, the financial importance and justification of engineered fabrics spreads from conventional textile industry to almost all facets of human life still investors and manufacturers are not getting enough confidence to expand the production capacity at large scale. In spite of all these challenges, the field of engineered fabrics is very promising and only need to keep

Engineered fabrics cannot be developed by using only one type specialty fiber, yarn, weave and finish. This chapter belongs to consider various factors: commercial, technical and global which are major driving forces of this industry. Engineered fabrics have got attention from both side of Atlantic but China has registered remarkable growth in this sector and India is

> © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Mukesh Kumar SinghAdditional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82717

total fabric production in developed nations.

freshness in product development for better end uses.

emerging at slow pace [4].

Mukesh Kumar Singh

**1. Introduction**

Director, UP Textile Technology Institute, Kanpur Affiliated to Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University Lucknow, India

#### **Chapter 1 Provisional chapter**

#### **Introductory Chapter: Engineered Fabrics Introductory Chapter: Engineered Fabrics**

#### Mukesh Kumar Singh Mukesh Kumar Singh

In some chapters, typical sections are included with specific material on real case studies. These chapters will provide some research platforms to future researchers. This book in‐ cludes up-to-date coverage on engineered fabrics. Each year exciting and valuable advances are registered in the field of engineered fabrics. While I understand that not all of these are appropriate for discussion in a specific book, I have incorporated the most up-to-date infor‐ mation and exciting, recent advances to maintain accurate descriptions of structures and processes and to illustrate essential points. Specific examples include a geotextile, textiles for

The book will serve as a study guide for students that provides learning objectives, study outlines, and learning activities to help their science and engineering undergraduate and

This book once again confirms that enthusiasm and affection towards the subject of engi‐ neered fabrics are more important than any other gains. Special thanks are also given to In‐ techOpen for consistent effort and interest in keeping this project alive for a long duration

**Professor Mukesh Kumar Singh**

Director, UP Textile Technology Institute, Kanpur

Affiliated to Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University Lucknow, India

acoustic applications, etc., and functions of such engineered fabrics.

postgraduate course content.

VIII Preface

and for having continued faith in the editors.

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82717

**1. Introduction**

Engineered fabrics have become the need of present era because the application field of engineered fabrics have spread from automobile sector to aeronautics, marine to geo-engineering, sports items to packaging materials, etc., The present popularity of engineered fabrics is not an incident but it is a long journey which engineered fabrics have completed from triple layer fabrics to three-dimensional fabrics. Engineered fabrics also consists of solution-focused and custom-designed fabrics [1]. These products are also utilized in process industries outside of papermaking such as nonwovens, corrugators, building products, tannery and textile industries.

10.5772/intechopen.82717

The growth of engineered fabrics is linked with application of both natural as well as manmade fibers. Engineered fabrics are becoming the base for various product developments for wide variety of applications [2]. Engineered fabrics are reaching to touch the 40–45% share of total fabric production in developed nations.

The supply chain of engineered fabrics follows a long route, starting from manufacturing and selection of appropriate fiber to manufacturing of specialty fabrics for engineering applications [3].

Although, the financial importance and justification of engineered fabrics spreads from conventional textile industry to almost all facets of human life still investors and manufacturers are not getting enough confidence to expand the production capacity at large scale. In spite of all these challenges, the field of engineered fabrics is very promising and only need to keep freshness in product development for better end uses.

Engineered fabrics cannot be developed by using only one type specialty fiber, yarn, weave and finish. This chapter belongs to consider various factors: commercial, technical and global which are major driving forces of this industry. Engineered fabrics have got attention from both side of Atlantic but China has registered remarkable growth in this sector and India is emerging at slow pace [4].

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The engineered fabrics are used as raw material to serve various segments of technical textiles viz., agrotech, buildtech, cosmetotextiles, clothtech, hometech, indutech, mobiltech, sportech, packtech, meditech, protech, and others. The automobile textiles (mobiltech) segment is demanding highest amount of engineered fabrics followed by industrial textiles (Indutech). Various types of engineered fabrics like spacer fabrics, multilayer fabrics, needle punched nonwoven fabrics, melt blown nonwoven fabrics and warp knitted fabrics are highly demanded by various sectors of technical textiles [5].

The engineered fabrics can be comparable with composite materials also where two materials having different nature are combined together to extract the merits of both the materials in a single product, similarly two or more than two types of fibers, yarns, weaves or laying techniques are combined to engineer the targeted fabric [9]. In fact at this stage it is safe to say that any effort to define the engineered fabrics will prove insufficient because the development in

Introductory Chapter: Engineered Fabrics http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82717 3

Since decades of years technical textiles was widely used to explain the unconventional textiles which includes bunch of fibers, ropes, cabled yarns, woven and nonwoven fabrics, finished fabrics, stitched textiles, etc. The term technical textiles is used to encompass all textile products other than those intended for apparel, household and furnishing enduses, however, the term "engineered fabrics" is limited to various woven, nonwoven, knitted and braided fabrics manufactured by some unorthodox manufacturing techniques for special engineering applications. Various fabrics engineered for specific applications like medical, hygiene, sporting, transportation, construction, agricultural and many other

Engineered fabrics are used to provide the base for filters, machine clothing, conveyor belts, abrasive substrates, geofabrics, fabrics for acoustic and thermal insulation, etc. It is essential to mention that the composite materials made of polymeric membrane as reinforcing material with matrices, highly loose structured materials such as chopped strand mat, milled glass and

Various natural fibers have enough potential to become the part of engineered fabrics. The major natural fibers have been used as basic material in engineered fabrics is cotton, flax, jute and sisal. These fiber are used to manufacture various heavy engineered fabrics like canvas, needle punched nonwoven fabrics for geo applications, ropes, belts and other multilayer fabrics, etc. [12]. However, some limitations of these fibers restricted the growth in engineered fabrics in which higher rigidity, prone to fungal and microbial attack; poor water resistance and lower flame retardancy are remarkable. Jute is cheaply available fiber which has ample potential to be used in engineered fabrics in gray and treated form. Sisal fiber is suitable mate-

Wool is another natural option with merits of higher limiting oxygen index value, thermal insulation but its limited availability and versatility has restricted its applications in engineered fabrics [14]. Silk fiber is another rare option for engineered fabrics due to its low avail-

pulped organic fibers cannot become the part of engineering fabrics [11].

**4. Suitable raw material for engineered fabrics**

rial for ropes, nets and twines manufacturing [13].

ability and higher cost [15].

**3. How does an engineered fabric differ from technical fabrics?**

this sector is in neonatal stage.

purposes [10].

The engineered fabrics are able to cater the needs of wide spectrum of present market starts from awnings, airbags, automobile filters, floor covering, fabrics used in erosion suppression, hoses, road construction, safety belts, thermal and sound insulation and upholstery, etc. Engineered fabric manufacturing industry is already established in strong position in China, India, Korea, Thailand and Taiwan. The engineered fabric market is continued to grow in coming years also. The growth of automobile, industrial sector and infrastructure sector are the major driving forces for engineered fabrics [6]. Being the world's second largest producer of textiles and apparel, India's engineered fabrics manufacturing sector is also growing at fast rate and creating both direct and indirect employment. The textile and garment industry is the root of Indian economy which provided employment to 105 million citizens. Indian textile industry will grow up to \$223 billion by 2021 in which engineered fabric's sector will play major role. High transportation and energy cost and lack of labor reforms are some major hurdles in traditional Indian textile industry which force to shift its focus from conventional textile to engineered textiles. Export of engineered textiles is increasing with annual growth rate of 18%. Now, Government of India developed new policies for rapid growth of industry which will make remarkable change in engineered textiles. There are few steps taken to promote the engineered fabric manufacturing in India.

