It seems that the Nonwovens Innovation & Research Institute, a spinoff company of the University of Leeds, is on the right track. The company just received an investment from Yorkshire Forward, a regional development agency, to continue developing technology and products that utilize Nonwovens’ hydroentanglement method of creating fabrics that can be embedded with gels, liquid vessels, and a host of other materials to deliver liquids, pharmaceuticals, and perform biologic filtering.
From the company:
“Lightweight spunlaced fabrics with internal cavities that can be filled with gels, waxes, cosmetics, detergents and solid particles to functionalise the fabric”
Hydrospace fabrics have precisely defined cavities within the cross-section. These cavities can be of many different shapes and sizes. Hydrospace enables the storage, release or the controlled delivery of functional
or active agents from these cavities. Fragile, hydrophilic and particulate materials may be introduced during fabric formation.
Adjacent spaces can be filled with different materials or the same spaces can be filled with dispersions, gels or combinations of solids and liquids as the fabric is made.
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