All Kapok Textile Materials

Kapok Fiber Plants

Fortune Cat^® is the only manufacturer of kapok fiber in China.

Known as “plant of soft gold”, Fortune Cat^® Kapok fiber is the fruit fiber of perennial Kapok trees. Fortune Cat^® Kapok fiber is a kind of natural functional fiber, and it is also the thinnest, lightest, hollowest and warmest natural fiber known at present. Fortune Cat^® Kapok fiber is very light and fluffy, shiny like silk, feel like cashmere, known as “plant silk” and “tree cashmere” reputation.

Kapok fiber has three colors: white, grey, yellow. Among them, white kapok fiber is the most commonly used. Due to the short length of china kapok fiber, it is only used as a home textile filler. Most of the Kapok fiber used for spinning is imported from Indonesia and other countries.

❖Fortune Cat^® kapok fiber is a typical biomass ultra-short fine and soft fiber. Its main physical characteristics are short, fine, light and soft.

❖The cross section of Fortune Cat^® Kapok fiber is round or oval, the cell wall thickness is only 0.5-2μm, close to transparent, and the fiber hollowness is as high as more than 80%, which is 2-3 times that of general cotton fiber. It is the most hollow natural fiber known to date.

❖The longitudinal shape of Fortune Cat^® Kapok fiber is cylindrical, with no obvious bending, smooth surface and good luster. The middle part of the fiber is thicker, the end is thinner, and the two ends are closed.

❖The length of Fortune Cat^® Kapok fiber is 8-24mm and the linear density is 0.9-1.2dtex, which is about half of the cotton fiber and is the thinest natural fiber at present.

❖Fortune Cat^® Kapok fiber is mainly composed of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, xylan, flavonoids, triterpenes, water, ash, wax and other substances. The cellulose content is about 64%, and the lignin content is about 13%.

❖Fortune Cat^® Kapok fiber has good chemical stability, acid and alkali resistance, dilute acid or NaOH at room temperature has no effect on Kapok. It can be used for direct dye dyeing, and its dyeing rate is about 63%.

❖Kapok tree is a perennial plant, its fiber can be harvested once a year, organic, renewable, degradable. The annual carbon absorption of a kapok tree is 393.68kg. The carbon sequestration capacity of kapok trees is also very strong, and the annual carbon storage capacity of a kapok tree is 6 kilograms more than the carbon storage capacity of a common tree for carbon sequestration and carbon storage. Fortune Cat^® Kapok fiber is very in line with the current natural, healthy, low-carbon, environmental protection, renewable development requirements.

Functional Characteristics of Fortune Cat^® Kapok fiber：

❖Soft and Light-Because Fortune Cat^® Kapok fiber has a unique thin-walled large hollow structure and only half of the fineness of cotton fiber, it is relatively small in density and very light and fluffy. Kapok fiber also has a cashmere feel, light and soft, comfortable and skin-friendly.

❖Heat Storage-Because the hollow degree of Fortune Cat^® kapok fiber is more than 80%, a large amount of air can be stored inside the fiber, forming a static air layer, which can achieve the effect of warm and heat storage.

❖Anti-mite and Antibacterial-Because of the high lignin content in Fortune Cat^® Kapok fiber, it has a natural anti-mite function. The flavonoids and triterpenoids in Fortune Cat^® Kapok fiber also make it possess natural antibacterial properties. The anti-mite and antibacterial activity of Fortune Cat^® Kapok fiber is permanent and will not disappear with the increase of washing times.

❖Moisture Absorbent and Transfer Ability-The content of hemicellulose in Fortune Cat^® kapok fiber is high, which can absorb water and expand rapidly, so that it has strong hygroscopicity. The common moisture regain of Fortune Cat^® Kapok fiber is 10.9%, and the moisture absorption is stronger than that of cotton fiber. Because of the high lignin content in Fortune Cat^® Kapok fiber, the water inside the fiber can be dried quickly under the transport of lignin, and it has strong moisture conductivity.

❖Other Characteristics-Fortune Cat^® Kapok fiber also has oil absorption, sound insulation, heat insulation, buoyancy, easy to clean, not entangled, degradable and other characteristics.

Despite the many advantages of kapok fiber, it has not been widely used. The main reason is that:

1. Kapok fiber length is short, brittle and easy to break, holding force is poor, it is difficult to mesh into strips, the higher the kapok content, the more difficult the spinning, the content of kapok yarn is generally difficult to exceed 20%. Moreover, it is difficult to control the blending degree and mixing uniformity of kapok and other fibers in the spinning process, which directly leads to poor stability of Kapok content in yarn.

2. Due to the loose structure, low strength, uneven dryness, excessive fuzz, and susceptibility to fuzzing and shedding of fibers of wood cotton yarn produced by traditional techniques, the yarn quality is relatively poor, which limits its application in clothing, home textiles, and other fields.

Fortune Cat^® started the research and development of kapok fiber and its products as early as 2010, and gradually mastered the key technologies of Kapok blended yarn production through more than ten years of dedicated research, and reached long-term direct cooperation with many domestic and Indonesian Kapok fiber suppliers, so that the production of Fortune Cat^® Kapok blended yarn has achieved high quality and mass production.

Fortune Cat^® has successfully developed a processing method for ultra short, fine and flexible fiber blended yarn, overcoming a series of spinning difficulties of cotton fiber. It not only breaks through the technical barrier that cotton content cannot exceed 20%, but also achieves a maximum cotton content of 50%; Moreover, it has improved the compatibility between kapok and other fibers, expanded the types of wood cotton yarn blends, and enabled kapok to be blended not only with cotton, but also with various fibers such as Tencel, Lyocell, corn fiber, polyester, etc.

The kapok blended yarn produced by Fortune Cat^® has the advantages of less shedding, high strength, uniform dryness, fewer cotton knots, short hairiness, uniform mixing of various fibers, and sufficient and stable kapok content. It has a high reputation and good reputation in the industry.

Production points of Kapok products:

❖Take appropriate protective measures-Kapok fiber is short in length, lightweight, brittle, and prone to breakage, which can easily lead to the formation of fly fibers during production. Dust, spinning, twisting, weaving and other workshop employees should take protective measures such as wearing masks and dust goggles.

❖Control the temperature and humidity of the production site-Watering the ground appropriately can increase humidity, and twisting and warping should be done as much as possible. Avoid air humidification and prevent flying fluff from sticking to the yarn channel, which can cause an increase in yarn breakage.

❖Strengthen the management of workshop air intake and exhaust-Using the middle and lower exhaust floor suction system effectively, flying fluff and dust can be promptly expelled from the vehicle. Reduce environmental pollution and alleviate employee discomfort.

❖Weaving-In the production of Kapok woven fabrics, the sizing should be mainly enhanced and applied to hair, and attention should be paid to timely removal of accumulated velvet on the warp shaft. The yarn of kapok knitted fabric can be waxed before weaving, and the accumulated pile of knitting needle and channel should be cleaned in time during weaving to avoid yarn breakage and cloth surface defects.

❖Staining-The lignin content in kapok fiber is high, the dyeing rate is low, only 63%, and the evenness and color fastness are not as good as cotton fiber, which can generally be dyed with direct dyes. The surface of Kapok is hydrophobic and oleophilic, so we should pay more attention to the removal of wax and impurities on the surface of Kapok fiber or improve the dyeing property of Kapok fiber by cationic modification and low temperature plasma treatment.

Fortune Cat^® kapok spinning production base has 100000 spindles capacity. Fortune Cat^® kapok fabrics is widely used in the making of garments and home textile products. Fortune Cat^®'s own kapok product design department and finished product sewing factories can accept all kinds of kapok clothing and home textile orders.

E-mail us to get a free quote: fortunecatfibers@outlook.com