Corn "change" clothes Jiaxing enterprises use plant fibers to create ecological clothing

High temperature days of 38 degrees Celsius.

Honghe Town, Xiuzhou District, Jiaxing.

Gao Xiaohua stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the office and looked out. The road in the town had a layer of white light under the sun's roasting, which was a bit dazzling. There have been few people going out in such hot weather. Gao Xiaohua looked at the time and decided to go to an appointment.

Honghe Town, the hometown of famous woolen sweaters in the country. Gao Xiaohua also runs a sweater company with a history of nearly 30 years. Unlike the sweater owner here, he founded his own menswear brand in 1998.

Jiajia City Central Plaza, Jiaxing New Fashion Eco-Textile Technology Co., Ltd. General Manager Shang Jia has already brewed tea in the office. Two minutes later, Gao Xiaohua knocked on the door of the office. This is a gathering of old friends who have not seen for two decades, but not only that.

Successfully filed more than 10 national patents for 8 years of hard injury

Why do you want to develop corn fiber products? Shang Jia is summed up in the four words of "coincidence." It turned out that a few years ago, Shang Jia's father suffered from senile skin itching. In order to alleviate his father's symptoms, he used various medicines to search for ecological non-sensitized fabrics and found corn fiber.

Therefore, Shang Jia began to think: there are many people with allergies in life, can you develop this material into clothes suitable for infants, the elderly and other people?

If you have an idea, it is not easy to implement. In order to overcome the high temperature and hard feeling of the two "fatal injuries" after making corn clothes into clothes. In recent years, their company has carried out extensive cooperation with domestic research institutes such as Donghua University, Suzhou University, and Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, and invested a lot of manpower and material resources in improving the softness and durability of fabrics, overcoming a series of technical challenge. Finally, after focusing on R&D for 8 years, new clothing products with more than ten national patents have been put on the market.

"The invention relates to a pure polylactic acid fiber underwear underwear fabric, which solves the problem that the polylactic acid fiber in the prior art cannot reach 100% pure spinning. The pure polylactic acid fiber underwear underwear fabric adopts 100% pure polylactic acid fiber textile. It's made..." In Shang Jia's office, there are many such invention certificates, and as many as the certificates, there are new products developed by the company using corn fiber.

The cost of “corn clothes” is only four to one-fifth of that of silk.

"Now the technology of corn fiber has matured, we can achieve 100% without adding." Shang Jia said that in addition to developing clothing, the company has applied corn fiber to the field of home textiles and daily necessities such as socks, quilts and underwear.

“In addition to the environmentally-friendly effects of renewable and degradable, what is the advantage of corn fiber clothing compared with ordinary clothes?” Gao Xiaohua asked.

“The clothes made of corn fiber absorb moisture and perspiration, are easy to clean, have a good drape, and are not easily deformed.” Shang Jia said that “corn clothes” absorbs sweat three to four times more than cotton clothes, but has silk fabrics. Natural luster and drape. And compared with the clothing produced by petroleum products, the color is bright and pleasing. Because there is no special treatment in the production process, “corn clothing” does not produce static electricity, it is not irritating to the skin, and it is soft and comfortable to wear.

In order to verify the breathability of corn fiber, it is better to take off the sneakers worn on his feet. "My corn fiber socks don't have a strange smell for three or four days in a row." Shang Jia said that the good stretch of corn fiber makes the socks on his feet that have been worn for a few years still like new ones. Deformation.

“Last year, we participated in the 3rd China Corn Industry Expo, and the corn fiber socks exhibited on the first day were sold out.” Shang Jia said with pride.

When talking about the material cost problem that Gao Xiaohua cares about, Shang Jia said that the cost of corn fiber is slightly higher than that of pure cotton, so compared with ordinary cotton clothes, the cost of corn fiber clothing is higher than that of ordinary clothes, but only It is four to one-fifth of the cost of silk.

“We are the first and only company in China to produce 100% corn fiber clothing. From the current sales situation, I am very optimistic about the prospect of corn fiber clothing.” After listening to Shang Jia’s introduction, Gao Xiaohua was excited. . In his view, the development of traditional textile enterprises mainly depends on transformation and upgrading, embracing new technologies, and increasing product added value and market competitiveness.

The last meeting of old friends is the commitment of the two companies to cooperate with each other. As Shang Jia said, with the increasing awareness of the global ecological environment, the use of ecologically recyclable new fabrics will become more and more widespread.

It is a bright spot for corn to make clothes.

After greeting each other and chatting for ten years, Shang Jia picked up a male white POLO collar T-shirt from his desk: "Hey, this is made with corn fiber."

The appearance is no different from ordinary T-shirts, and the feel is slightly thicker than cotton clothes. Gao Xiaohua, who has been doing clothing business for decades, can’t help but wonder: “Can corn be worn?”

Shang Jia said that corn can "create" fashionable and beautiful clothes because it extracts starch raw materials. “This is a green polymer material called polylactic acid.”

For many years dealing with clothing, Gao Xiaohua has always had his own interpretation of clothing fabrics : cotton, wool, hemp, silk, and man-made fibers have all been popular, but they have limitations. For example, although the cotton garment is comfortable to wear, it is not visually appealing; although the silk is light and soft, it is easy to wrinkle; although the hemp is cool, it has a tingling sensation; although the chemical fiber is crisp, it is difficult to be friendly to the skin. What to wear in the future is also a question he has been thinking about and urgently needs to solve.

“The clothes I wear are made of corn.” Shang Jia pointed out that the yellow T-shirt he wore said that the biggest feature of this “corn clothing” is green. Shang Jia said: "The corn fiber garment buried in the soil will be degraded within a few months and become a fertilizer that can be absorbed and utilized by plants. After the fertilizer is absorbed by plants, it can become polylactic acid after photosynthesis. Starting raw starch. During this recurring cycle, exhaust emissions are greatly reduced."

According to Shang Jia, all starch-containing plants such as corn and cassava can extract polylactic acid fibers from them. At present, only the United States and the Netherlands can produce polylactic acid fiber raw materials. However, due to the fear of high temperatures and hard hand feelings, the use of such fibers in the fields of clothing and home textiles has been in a blank state for more than a decade.