The Wonder of Micro-Fibre
Have you ever thought, ‘what’s so great about a micro-fibre towel? It’s just a towel, right?’ Wrong! It turns out that there is a lot to these strange towels. Out of curiosity, we decided to do some investigating into what makes a micro-fibre towel so great.
The History
Micro-fibre towels got their inspiration from geckos. Yes, the little green creature that can stick to anything. Yale scientists were investigating the feat of gecko feet (pun intended) sticking to walls. Geckos have millions of tiny hairs on the pads of their feet that are so small that they can fit into the microscopic pores and crevasses of a surface. What may seem completely flat to the human eye is often filled with these tiny spaces. The gecko foot hairs not only fit into the tiny pores; they have a miniscule electrostatic charge, which also acts to hold the hair pillars in place.
The study eventually led to an attempt to clean dust from valuable acrylic paintings in art galleries. The dust particles that were smaller than 10 microns were very difficult to clean. They introduced micro-fibre cloth to the restoration methods and discovered that they worked perfectly.
Although there is some debate about the history of micro-fibre, the fact remains that there many unusual uses for it.
The Usage
The micro-fibre materials are made from petrochemicals and nylon. The towels are oleophobic and hydrophobic, meaning the material is oil and water “hating”. The cloth material does not tend to adhere well to oil or water substances, at least for very long. In sporting goods, it is known as “wicking” when the moisture is carried away from one’s body.
That means the towels can be used for everything from placemats to cycling jerseys. Water evaporates very quickly. The smoothness of the material also tends to feel good to human touch. During the 1970’s, people referred to it as “ultra-suede”, which sounded pretty impressive.
Another ability of micro-fibre is that it creates a thin air pocket, which means that it has insulative qualities. It can be used to replace down feather or wool. Once wet, they both tend to stay wet for a very long time. The micro-fibre does not.
Benefits to You
Due to micro-fibre technology, many regularly used household items have become much more beneficial to you. For example, one of the most convenient, and popular uses of micro-fibre materials is in top quality towels. Micro-fibre towels have lots of fine hairs, meaning that there is a larger surface area to absorb water compared to a normal towel. This is beneficial especially for people with sensitive or coarse hair, as you don’t need to rub your hair as much with a micro-fibre towel in order to dry it, leading to less hair breakage.
Some companies and brands such as Dock & Bay Innovative Towels, have developed specific micro-fibre beach towels for families to take on beach trips. This is not only useful when it comes to drying hair, but also has the added advantage of drying much faster than regular beach towels. In the old days, when towels were cotton, if they became wet they stayed wet. They were often heavy before they got wet, but once wet they could be like carrying a bowling ball around. After all, we’re there to sunbathe, not go bowling.
The more we think about it, the more we realize that probably half of all the materials in the house are micro-fibre. There is almost no end to its uses.
Like this Article? Share it!
