Toray Industries has expanded its Ecodear family with the addition of its first 100% plant-based nylon 510 fibre.
The company says the main application of the new fibre will initially be for sports and outdoor fabrics. Subsequent options will include lightweights, cut-and-sew fabrics and innerwear lace materials.
Toray’s Ecodear’s integrated brand portfolio already comprises partially plant-based polyesters, polyamides, and other polymers. Ecodear PET is a plant-based polyester fibre based on plant-derived ethylene glycol, extracted from sugarcane molasses, and petroleum-derived terephthalic acid. And the company’s biodegradable Ecodear PLA is seeing wide use in a range of everyday, engineering and agricultural applications. It has also been adopted in desert greening.
Using a spinning process, the new Ecodear N510 fibre is made from sebacic acid from the castor-oil plant and pentamethylenediamine derived from corn.
According to Toray, unlike other wholly plant-based nylons, Ecodear N510 has a high melting point and outstanding dimensional stability, and is as strong and heat-resistant as PA 6.
Ecodear N510 represents part of the Toray Group’s efforts to help attain carbon neutrality by 2050. The company says it plans to launch Ecodear N510 textiles sales in fall or winter 2023. The production volume will initially be 200,000 metres by the end of March 2023, increasing to 600,000 metres in March 2026. Also, Toray will be exploring how to combine various proprietary technologies to drive further fibre advances. These would include making thinner and lighter fibres or adding functionality by changing cross-sectional shapes. The company will develop an array of apparel and other materials applications for the new fibre.