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Viscont FR Is A Flame Retardant, Multi-Filament Yarn Embroidery Thread

• By  Henry Dsouza
• February 16, 2016

Glanztoff Industries is known for its product portfolio, which includes a wide range of tyre reinforcement and MRG's applications. They are the largest European converter for technical fibres. This year Glanztoff presented innovations under the umbrella of Viscont®Flame Retardant for multi-purpose work wear and fire fighting turnout gears at Techtextil, Mumbai. Anurima Das, in conversation with Martin Webster, Head of Marketing and Sales, Viscont.

Tell us a little about the Viscont Flame Retardant Embroidery Thread.

To fill the existing gap between flame retardant polyester and aramid threads the viscose filament yarn manufacturer, Glanzstoff Industries (Austria) in co-operation with thread manufacturers decided to develop a flame retardant embroidery thread out of flame-retardant viscose multifilament yarn Viscont®FR, which is a  high-tenacity thread. The embroidery thread thus produced is a high-quality, attractive, shiny, flame retardant, low pilling thread, which is completely dyeable in all colours.

What are the advantages of this yarn as compared to the polyester and aramid yarns?

As compared to the polyester threads, Viscont®FR shows no melting and no dripping. This by maintaining the same precision and brilliance of the embroidered picture. The improvement in comparison with the aramid threads is that the Viscont®FR yarn does not show any hairiness.

Also on display was the lining for fire fighting gears made out of aramid and flame retardant viscose filament yarn. What is the advantage of this mix?

The lining for fire fighting turnout gears with an average of 135g, gives the fire-fighter a high slipperiness and flexibility. Besides the comfortable cool grip, the most important advantage of this product is the reduction of bulking, by the clothing worn underneath the turnout gear, while dressing. Because of the lack of available flame retardant filaments most of the lining developments for fire fighting turnout gears have been produced out of flame retardant staple fibre yarn until now. But now we decided to bring in the best properties of these two yarns to our advantage, so that the fire fighters benefit on both protection and get comfort too.

How is the market for you in India?

On the one hand we hear that the entire paradigm of technical textiles is developing at a slow pace in the country owing to the unavailability of effective yarns and fibres. On the other we are encountered with heavy custom duties and especially when it comes to flame retardant yarn, we are expected to pay heavier duties to make the same available to the country. But unfortunately if we add that excessive price, we will have very few takers for the yarn. The government should definitely look into this aspect, so that the yarn is made available at a comfortable price to the customers in India. The market in India will only get better when we are comfortable in the price parameters. When we sell to customers in China, the customers find our yarns cheaper. But the same in India hurts the customers.

Is India a hopeful market for technical textiles?

 Absolutely it is. Even with the negatives at bay, we still have many customers from India. High performance apparel industry is definitely opening up newer dimensions for development of technical textiles in India. Awareness is there, feasibility and availability of the raw materials is actually the real hindrance when it comes to the growth of the technical textile market in India.

Textile Excellence