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The October issue of Insider includes a wealth of innovation. This year is our 30th annual 42 under 42. Every year we choose 42 entrepreneurs under…

A trial has been completed as part of a project to develop strain-rate sensitive textiles, supported by funding from Innovate UK.

Rheon Labs has completed a six-month trial with Fibre Extrusion Technology (FET), a specialist in laboratory and pilot meltspinning equipment.

Backed by a £173,000 grant from Innovate UK for feasibility studies, Rheon Labs has further developed its RHEON technology, a reactive polymer that dynamically stiffens when subjected to force.

The Smart Grant-backed project aims to develop a hyper viscoelastic fibre with strain-rate sensitive properties. It could enable the creation of stretch textiles that can actively absorb, dampen and control energy during movement, rather than simply acting as a spring.

The Innovate UK grant was awarded under the category of Hyper-Viscoelastic Fibre Extrusion for Textile Manufacture.

FET enabled the customer trials at its Fibre Development Centre in Leeds using its in-house FET-103 Monofilament meltspinning facilities.

The next phase will be to upscale the trials of preferred materials on Rheon's own new FET-103 meltspinning line, with FET's continued support and expertise on hand.

A statement from FET said: "For close-fitting activewear and sports bras, the ability to actively control muscle mass or soft tissue movement during exercise will be a game-changing advancement. It will allow brands to engineer garments that relax during everyday use but actively stiffen during exercise for improved support and performance.

"Creating a fibre with unique strain-rate sensitive characteristics could be as radical a change in the market as the initial introduction of stretch fibre with the launch of Lycra.

"The textiles would have a multitude of beneficial properties and would provide significantly less compression in the garment than conventional materials, substantially improving user comfort, support and performance."

Fibre Extrusion Technology / Innovate UK / Rheon Labs /

Stephen Farrell, Senior Digital Staff Writer T: 0844 980 0183 E: stephen.farrell@newsco.com

Andy Slim, Managing Director, North T: 0113 220 4411 E: andrew.slim@newsco.com

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