In today’s world, many diseases can spread globally in a matter of hours.
To live a healthy life and prevent diseases from spreading, it is best to invest in anti-bacterial textiles.
These days, there seems to be an increase in the demand for anti-bacterial yarns as many people, especially doctors and individuals in hospitals, prefer wearing these products.
This post will explain what an anti-microbial yarn is, how it works, and how you can test it to verify that it does what you want.
What Is Anti-Bacterial Yarn?
Anti-bacterial yarns are just what they sound like: yarns with functions of anti-bacteria.
Antimicrobial yarns are made by treating yarn substrates with antimicrobial agents or by using textile fiber with inherent antimicrobial efficiency. Antimicrobial agents are bound to textiles by different methods depending on the chemistry between the antimicrobial agent and the textile.
In fact, they are usually found in products such as fabrics, household cleaners, soaps, detergents, and health and skincare products.
Although anti-bacterial yarns are not standard in everyday apparel, you will find them in socks, undergarments, medical garments, and exercise clothing.
They can also be found in home textiles such as towels and sheets.
Types Of Anti-Bacterial Yarns:
Regarding anti-bacterial agents, the most widely used antimicrobial agents for textile applications are based on metal salts (for e.g., zinc, silver), quaternary ammonium compounds (QAC), halogenated phenols (for e.g., triclosan), polybiguanide (for e.g., PHMB), chitosan, and N-halamines.
As far as yarn material is concerned, now polyester and nylon is most widely used in textiles. Cellulose materials such as cotton, rayon and lyocell are also increasing.
How Does Anti-Bacterial Yarn Works?
In general, antibacterial agents can either kill the microorganisms or inhibit their growth. They can damage the cell wall or disrupt the cell membrane permeability, and inhibit the activity of enzymes or synthesis of lipids, while all these functions are essential for microorganisms’ survival.
What are the Applications and Benefits of Anti-Bacterial Yarn?
The applications of Anti-Bacterial yarn include:
- Sports textiles: The yarn is an ideal material for manufacturing sports garments, which athletes wear during practice or actual games. The yarn helps protect them from bad odor and other bacterial infections.
- Medical textiles: Anti-Bacterial yarn can be used to manufacture medical garments used in hospitals, labs, and clinics, such as bead sheets, medical gowns, curtains, patient clothing, scrubs, and textile dressings for wounds, etc. Garments made of this yarn also protect patients from harmful bacteria, germs, or infection.
- Military and Defense: Anti-bacterial yarn has also made its place in military and defense contracting for manufacturing biological/counter-chemical warfare garments and other related equipment.
- Actually, anti-microbial textiles are more and more used in other fields, such as home textiles, automotive and even furniture fabric, food packaging, safety gear, air filters, the apparel industry, and more.
The benefits of our anti-bacterial yarn are:
- It reduces the amount of harmful bacteria on the surfaces of your fabrics by 99.9%.
- It always smells fresh and clean, even after being worn for a while.
- It is used in garments and shoes to prevent odor due to sweat.
- It helps prevent infections such as acne, because bacteria can’t live on it.
How Do You Test For Antibacterial Fabric?
AATCC 100 is a test method that measures the effectiveness of a compound in inhibiting the growth of bacteria, fungi, or other microorganisms.
It’s used to determine whether or not a product can be considered “anti-microbial”—that is, resistant to the growth of microorganisms without being toxic to humans.
Other Standard tests include:
- AATCC TM147 (American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists Test Method)
- AATCC TM30
- ISO 20645 (International Organization for Standardization)
- ISO 11721
- ISO 20743
- SN 195920 (Swiss standard)
- SN 195921
- SN 195924
- JIS L 1902 (Japanese industry standards)
- ASTM E 2149 (or its modification)
Conclusion
Hikingex is a functional and innovative yarn supplier. We’re supplying various high-quality anti-bacterial yarns, including Zinc anti-bacterial yarn with outstanding characteristics, welcome to us if any questions or requirements.
