Now, the preparation of the Mian Technology Innovation and Industrial Development Strategic Alliance is underway. Academician Yao Mu of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Vice President Xu Wenyng of the China National Textile and Apparel Corporation (CNTAC), President Zhu Bun of the China Cotton Textile Industry Association, Director An Chengxin of the China Desertification Management Foundation, Professor Wang Fumei of Donghua University, and other industry leaders and experts are all involved. Companies such as Jin Kola Garments Co., Ltd. and Ji Hua Company also actively support this initiative. The establishment of an industrial development strategy alliance holds significant importance for utilizing natural kapok fibers to develop textile products and promoting the rapid growth of the kapok industry. After more than eight years of technological research and exploration, the kapok industry is about to enter a stage of vigorous development.
Kapok fibers have shorter lengths, lower strength, smoother surfaces, greater relative rotational stiffness, and poorer cohesion, making spinning difficult and resulting in lower yarn quality. These characteristics make it hard to spin kapok fibers alone using methods typically employed for cotton or wool processing. For a long time, due to issues with kapok fiber production and processability, kapok has only been used to produce low-grade padding materials, affecting its development and utilization in the textile industry.
Shanghai Pand Industrial (Group) Co., Ltd. is one of the earliest domestic companies engaged in kapok textiles and kapok cultivation. Its founder, Yan Guoxin, collaborated with Donghua University and the Shanghai Textile Science Research Institute to conduct research and technological development on kapok series materials, filing seven invention patents. They successfully developed a new spinning technology that rewrote the conclusion that kapok was only suitable as a filler and not for spinning. Their developed kapok spinning technology, evaluated by authoritative experts from institutions like the China National Textile and Apparel Corporation and Donghua University, filled some gaps in the world's technology. In October 2008, this technology won the only gold award in the textile category at the China International Invention Exhibition. Using kapok fibers, Shanghai Pand Group successfully spun ring-spun and air-jet spun yarns and established a kapok tree cultivation base in Gejiu, Yunnan, laying the foundation for large-scale and technological development of the kapok industry.
Additionally, the moisture absorption of kapok fibers is better than that of cotton fibers, with a standard regain rate of 10%~10.73%. Its average refractive index is 1.718, slightly higher than the average refractive index of cotton fibers, which is 1.596. Kapok fibers have good acid and alkali resistance, remaining unaffected by dilute acids and weak alkalis at room temperature. Kapok fibers come in white, yellow, and yellow-brown colors and can be dyed with direct dyes.
The "Plant Soft Gold" has unique properties. Kapok fibers are known as "plant soft gold" and are currently the finest, lightest, most hollow, and most insulating natural fibers. After over eight years of research and development, the application of kapok fibers in the textile field has become increasingly widespread. As a new type of ecological textile material, the promotion and use of kapok fibers have received more attention under the current situation of scarce fiber material resources.
Technological breakthroughs have led to increased usage. Professor Wang Fumei of Donghua University has been engaged in kapok fiber technology research for eight years. According to her, kapok fibers are naturally ultra-fine and highly hollow fibers, with a hollowness of 86%, far exceeding other fibers. They possess characteristics such as cleanliness, antibacterial properties, mothproofing, mold prevention, softness, difficulty in tangling, water impermeability, and thermal insulation. They have broad applications in aviation, medicine, textiles, papermaking, construction, and other industries.
In recent years, with the development of new spinning technologies, scientific researchers have made continuous breakthroughs in kapok fiber spinning technology. Kapok fibers are derived from the fruits of the kapok tree, adhering to the inner walls of the kapok fruit shell and developing from the inner wall cells. Due to their weak adhesion to the fruit, no special initial processing equipment is generally required; simply shaking a basket will cause the kapok seeds to sink to the bottom, obtaining kapok fibers. Kapok fibers are natural cellulose fibers, similar to cotton fibers but belong to single-cell fibers. However, kapok fibers have a series of unique features: their fineness is only half of cotton fibers, yet their hollowness reaches 86%, two to three times that of ordinary cotton fibers. This means that kapok underwear is lighter, thinner, and provides better warmth retention compared to regular fiber-made underwear. Kapok fibers are relatively short, ranging from 8mm to 34mm in length, with diameters in the middle section ranging from 20μm to 45μm and linear densities of 0.9~1.2 dtex. In terms of strength and elongation, kapok fibers have lower strength and less elongation capacity. The average strength of a single fiber is 1.4~1.7cN, with a fiber specific strength of 0.8~1.3cN/dtex and a breaking elongation rate of 1.5%~3.0%.