UHMWPE is regarded as one of the most high-performance fibre materials for technical textiles due to its extreme strength. Being up to 15 times stronger than steel, it is used to manufacture a variety of high performance products ranging from surgical sutures and cut-resistant gloves to body armour and high-strength offshore ropes.

Production, however, has so far had an environmental drawback – in the traditional gel spinning process, UHMWPE is mixed with oil to form a gel-like mass to be processed into fine strands. The oil is then washed out again with toxic solvents such as hexane or dichloromethane. The consumption is enormous – around 100 kilograms of these solvents are required per kilogram of yarn.

Supercritical CO2

FET’s system replaces these harmful solvents with supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) – a non-toxic medium that is often a by-product of industrial processes and is already used in the textile industry for waterless dyeing.

“The current systems for manufacturing UHMWPE filament yarns are on a huge scale, with very complex processing routes,” says FET Research and Development Manager Jonny Hunter. “This means the supply chain is currently very inflexible with minimal opportunity for new product development. These disadvantages have been fully addressed in the development of our new FET-500 series lab and small scale gel spinning system.”

“The FET-500 is in its first commercial phase and Techtextil 2026 is the first textile trade fair worldwide we are presenting it at,” adds FET Managing Director Richard Slack. “We have supplied many extrusion systems to the biomedical market, most notably for the production of both resorbable and non-absorbable sutures and in exploring what else we could do to assist these customers, it became clear that there was a need for smaller quantities of UHMWPE fibres in bespoke sizes. We are proud that the Techtextil Innovation Award has recognised our intensive work ahead of the exhibition. This shows that we are at the forefront of technological developments supporting the textiles of tomorrow.”

Vibrancy

“This award illusttrates the current vibrancy of the UK’s textile technology sector,” says BTMA CEO Jason Kent. “From the careful handling of ultra-high value yarns to the forensic inspection of finished fabrics, the BTMA members at Techtextil and Texprocess this year collectively represent a complete chain of innovation spanning processing, monitoring and quality assurance. Each company is contributing to a more resilient and resource-efficient technical textiles sector.”

BTMA members at Techtextil and Texprocess:

Airbond Hall 12.0, stand E31

Ascotex Hall 12.0, stand C75

Dent Instrumentation Hall 12, stand E61A

FET Hall 12.0, stand A78

James Heal Hall 12.0, stand B66

Roaches International Elmatex Pavilion, Hall 12.0, stand D05

SDC Enterprises Hall 12.0, stand B65

Shelton Vision Hall 12.0, stand E86

VeriVide Hall 8, stand B79.