Amphitex Material Innovation Involves Material Science, Textile Design and Design Engineering

The Amphitex project of Amphibio is the first 100% recyclable chemical-free waterproof breathable textile made for the outdoor and sportswear apparel industry. In April this year, Amphitex by  Amphibio was announced as one of four Terra Carta Design Lab winners. CEO & Founder Jun Kamei talks about ideas and how he sees things shaping up in the near future.

Long Story, Cut Short
  • Amphitex weaves yarn made from very unique material composition into fine textile which exhibits excellent water-repellency while also confident in being able to provide a recyclable material.
  • It is in the midst of its first mass manufacturing trial.
  • Testing textile-to-textile recycling as well as textile to other product recycling is currently on.
All the layers within Amphitex are being developed from the same source material, to create an innovative mono-material waterproof, making it very easy to recycle, unlike most on the market.
Soure Material All the layers within Amphitex are being developed from the same source material, to create an innovative mono-material waterproof, making it very easy to recycle, unlike most on the market. Amphibio

It's been a few months since you won the Terra Carta Design Lab award. How has the going been since then? How much progress have you been able to make on your project? Could you please elaborate?
With the support from Terra Carta, we have been able to accelerate mass manufacturing of Amphitex, both the water-repellent fabric and waterproof breathable membrane, while simultaneously working on the circularity and recycling of our product by running additional recycling tests. We are now able to weave yarn made from very unique material composition into fine textile which exhibits very good water-repellency while also confident in being able to provide a recyclable material.

The exposure has provided us with a platform to have very exciting conversations with different brands and clients. Understanding their perspectives, challenges and feedback is invaluable to our material development.

From concept to lab stage to mass production, it is quite a distance. At what point of that journey are you currently in? Where do the current challenges lie?
We are in the midst of our first mass manufacturing trial. The woven fabric can now be produced in a 1.5m width roll on industrial weaving machines and the waterproof breathable membrane is now being scaled to industrial production machines with very promising early results.

Currently, the main challenge lies with the finishing process of the textile and subsequent handling of the textile to reduce manufacturing contamination and keep its inherent water-repellent properties without excessive washing.

To make a new textile that is waterproof/breathable, you would have had to go to the drawing board and make it right from scratch (if that's the right phrase). How did you go about doing it? How long did the initial ideation process take? How many people were involved? In short, what's the story there?
Luckily for us, our textile was spun out from another innovation—the underwater breathing artificial gill device—which was the reason Jun Kamei, founder and CEO, primarily established Amphibio Ltd. For the artificial gill to work, we needed a waterproof but gas permeable membrane technology which is cheaper than fluorinated chemicals for scalability reasons.

This key material development, therefore, happened before we were aware of the challenges of the textile industry, but two years ago we had an “aha” moment where we realised that our technology for the artificial gill could be used in many industries.

Upon researching, understanding the challenges and current products within outdoor wear and sportswear, we realised that our material could help reduce and solve some of the key environmental issues, like PFCs, PTFE and laminated mixed material. It became a very exciting opportunity.

Over the past four years since Amphibio was founded, we’ve grown to a team of eight working on the material innovation for Amphitex with great competences from material science, textile design and design engineering.

The Amphidry Yarn in the face fabric is inherently  superhydrophic and therefore requires no additional DWR chemical coating to make it water repellent.
No Additional Coating The Amphidry Yarn in the face fabric is inherently superhydrophic and therefore requires no additional DWR chemical coating to make it water repellent. Amphibio

Your project video talks about how much waste is generated each year. How much waste is involved in the case of Amphitex, both during the production process as well as post-consumer waste? What steps are you taking towards zero waste manufacturing?
We are in the fortunate position of being pre-commercial; so, we don’t have as much waste to deal with but at our scale we are collecting all our pre-consumer R&D waste ready for recycling.

We are also developing a strategy with our suppliers to integrate a collection and storage system for all pre-consumer waste from spinning to garment manufacturing to then be used for recycling trials that would allow us to recycle the pre-consumer waste as well as the post-consumer waste.

The Amphitex project page also details usage of PFCs, ePTFEs, etc. Harmful as they are, those have been used over time because of certain properties / functionalities. How does your monomaterial aim to replace / recreate those properties?
Absolutely. PFCs and ePTFEs are really good at their job, especially in relation to outdoor wear. But with our technology we can retain a lot of the performance without the need for these “forever” chemicals.

We are able to spin an uncoated PFC-free yarn that performs the same as other PFC-free C0 coated yarns, extrude a membrane that has a liquid resistance which is higher compared to non-PTFE membrane (eg. PU, PP, PES).

In being monomaterial, Amphitex also tackles a lot of the issues of delamination and durability during a garment use cycle. Not only are all layers made from the same base material, we are using an adhesive that has our material as a base substrate. This creates a greater bond without hindering the recyclability and durability of our product.  

How does recyclability work in the case of Amphitex? Having a fabric that is recyclable is very different from a finished garment. Could you elaborate? If the mono material is 100% recyclable, what can it be recycled into? How biodegradable will it be?
We are still at an R&D recycling stage, but currently we run trials where we recycle pellets to understand how the properties of our material change (or not) so we know how many times they can be used as an input for other product manufacturing. We are also testing textile-to-textile recycling as well as textile to other product recycling.

As you mentioned, a finished garment is also very different due to the amount of components and added colorants/additives, but we are trialing solutions for that currently.

Our textile material is not biodegradable yet. But we want to work with different suppliers and work with them to develop a product with as much renewable feedstock as possible.

The mono-material WBT is designed to be 100% recyclable and PFC-free. In addition, the company is also exploring zero waste manufacturing processes.
Free from PFC The mono-material WBT is designed to be 100% recyclable and PFC-free. In addition, the company is also exploring zero waste manufacturing processes. Amphibio

What is your source material? You say that all three layers have the same source material? Where are you sourcing this source material from? How easily is it available? What is the cost of culling it from whichever source you are?
The source material is petroleum. There is no recycled or bio-based feedstock of our material that we can use. So, through the recycling trials, we are creating a system to reuse our own post-consumer waste for future feedstock as well as working with a partner to integrate more bio-based feedstock to create our source material.

Each of the layers: woven fabric (1st layer), waterproof breathable membrane (2nd) layer and knitted backing (3rd layer) are made from the same source material.

We are making choices on the feedstock composition so that it is price competitive compared to the status quo.

Which are the industries in which it has potential uses? What will be the cost to the B2B consumer?
The outdoor and sportswear textile industry is the primary output. However, due to its excellent liquid repellent properties, it will have applications in the medical PPE and products as a replacement of PTFE. We have clients interested in using this textile in the context of workwear too.

Jun Kamei
Jun Kamei
CEO & Founder
Amphibio Ltd

Upon researching, understanding the challenges and current products within outdoor wear and sportswear, we realised that our material could help reduce and solve some of the key environmental issues, like PFCs, PTFE and laminated mixed material. It became a very exciting opportunity.

Subir Ghosh

SUBIR GHOSH is a Kolkata-based independent journalist-writer-researcher who writes about environment, corruption, crony capitalism, conflict, wildlife, and cinema. He is the author of two books, and has co-authored two more with others. He writes, edits, reports and designs. He is also a professionally trained and qualified photographer.

 
 
 
  • Dated posted: 16 August 2022
  • Last modified: 16 August 2022