Lycra vs Spandex. There are some garments in our wardrobe that stretch and give us a lot of comfort while we wear them. There are certain fabrics with an inbuilt stretch. This is because of the material called spandex that is used while making these fabrics.
In the field of civil engineering, people use it as a load bearing base, usually between two prefabricated reinforced concrete elements or steel plates. In addition to that, we can use this material in making protective clothes for aquatic activities. Apart from that, it is useful in the automotive industry for making car seat covers, etc. Lycra is a synthetic polymer material that comes under elastic fibres, and Neoprene is a form of synthetic rubber.
The key difference between lycra and neoprene is that the lycra is an elastic fibre while neoprene is a form of synthetic rubber. Another difference between lycra and neoprene is that the lycra is a copolymer of polyether-polyurea while neoprene is a homopolymer of chloroprene.
Moreover, lycra has exceptional elasticity while neoprene has exceptional inertness. When considering the production process, for lycra, there are four different ways as melt extrusion, reaction spinning, solution dry spinning, and solution wet spinning. But for neoprene, it is free radical polymerization of chloroprene. Both Lycra and neoprene are synthetic polymer materials.
However, they are different from each other in many aspects. Available here 2. Use a strong hemp shopping bag instead ; lycra or latex? Latex and lycra are both synthetic and commonly spun as a fiber that is blended with other fibers such as cotton to provide stretch and to improve the fit, comfort and freedom of movement of a garment, and to reduce creasing and wrinkling in clothing blended with natural fibers. Latex is considered by some to be a more natural fiber because it is manufactured from the milky white latex fluid collected from the sustainably grown rubber tree.
But their use in clothing is not without health problems and concerns. The Problem with Latex. Latex allergies are reported to be dramatically on the rise globally and nearing epidemic levels according to medical researchers monitoring the rise in reported latex allergy cases.
Latex allergies are generally found in people with repeated and long term exposure to latex. Healthcare workers including doctors, nurses, aides, dentists, dental hygienists, operating room employees, laboratory technicians, and hospital housekeeping personnel are at greater risks of developing latex sensitivities largely because of their frequent use of latex gloves.
One reason for the rise in latex allergies is because more and more people are being exposed to higher levels of latex as the use of latex and the number of products containing latex has increased hugely within the last 20 years. Latex can now be found in more than 40, products including automobile upholstery and tires, latex foam for pillows and mattresses, kitchen utensils and dishwashing gloves, condoms, carpet backing, balloons, baby bottle nipples and pacifiers, and many common household items.
Clothing and medical care supplies are major uses of latex. With the need to product against the rise in AIDS and other infectious diseases, the medical care industry has become a major market for latex products, especially latex gloves. More than 10 billion latex gloves are used in the U.
Repeated exposure is necessary to develop allergies and health care professionals are regularly taking latex gloves on and off.
But so are many tens of millions of other people from the kitchen to the warehouse who frequently use latex gloves to protect their hands from detergents, cleaning products and harsh chemicals. Sensitivities to latex and latex allergies can cover a wide spectrum of symptoms that fall within three categories of reaction:. Because of the growing pervasive use of latex and the increasing health concerns, latex sensitivities and latex allergies should be of concern to everyone — from the hospital operating room to the mall clothing fitting room.
Latex is a natural and sustainable product that is manufactured from the milky white latex fluid collected from the rubber tree, Hevea Brasiliensis. Brazil is no longer a significant supplier of natural rubber latex but Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka have become the dominant exporters of natural rubber latex growing A rubber tree will produce latex for at least 40 years and yield enough latex to make 10 pairs of latex gloves per week.
One acre of rubber trees can yield latex for 1, pairs per week. They developed bud grafting techniques that would allow high rubber-yielding trees to be cloned to produce genetically identical rubber trees in virtually unlimited and sustainable numbers. Many of these rubber tree plantations are still active and producing. Natural latex is not made from the sap of the Hevea rubber tree which runs deeper inside the tree trunk.
Rubber trees are generally tapped every 3 to 5 days. When fibres are forced to stretch, bonds between the rigid sections are broken. After reaching the maximum length, rigid sectors bond to each other, and amorphous sectors remain stretched. When a force is removed, the amorphous sectors recoil and the fibers become relaxed. The production of Elastane started during WW2, since rubber-based fibres such as latex were not lightweight, durable and strong enough.
Other than this, rubber was a highly important material during the war to build various equipment, and its price was fluctuating. DuPont scientist J. Shivers was motivated to replace rubber-based fibers. Full-scale manufacturing started in by DuPont, and they are currently the world leader in elastane production.
The production process passes through 3 phases and 6 steps. There are 4 different ways to produce the fiber, melt extrusion, reaction spinning, solution dry spinning, and solution wet spinning. The process starts with the production of prepolymer through mixing macro-glycol with a diisocyanate monomer. A recommended ratio of macro-glycol to diisocyanate is During dry spinning, the prepolymer is then reacted with the same amount of diamine, and this forms achain extension reaction.
The resulting solution is diluted with a solvent to produce the spinning solution and the solvent helps make the solution thinner and more easily handled. It can then be pumped into the fiber production cell.
The spinning solution is pumped into a cylindrical spinning cell where it is cured and converted into fibres.
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