Zhejiang's Most Scientific | Who says fiber can only be used to make clothes? It can also be used to make bicycles and airplanes!

Do you know how clothes are made? What magical functions do tiny fibers have? Cation will lead us into the Textile Science Research Base in the National Textile Fabric Museum and the Zhejiang Modern Textile Technology Innovation Center to decipher where clothes come from, understand the process of fabric testing, and refresh our understanding of fibers!

Are you ready? Let's unveil the mystery of fiber together!

Popular Science Education Base // "The Most Scientific in Zhejiang"

The Zhejiang Association for Science and Technology Popular Science Education Base Consortium and the Zhejiang Science Popularization Federation have joined forces to make a big move and launched a super interesting program that takes you into Zhejiang’s popular science education bases - "The Most Scientific in Zhejiang" , which is like the "Running Man" of the scientific community!

This time, let's follow the footsteps of the public welfare anchor Cation from Ke Xiao Er and take everyone to the Zhejiang Province Science and Technology Education Base - Textile Science Education Base and Zhejiang Modern Textile Technology Innovation Center ! There are all kinds of fiber materials, strange fabric testing methods, bicycles made of carbon fiber... Let's embark on this scientific journey together!

How do fibers become clothes?

First, we followed the footsteps of Cationic and came to the Textile Science Research Base in the National Textile Fabric Museum.

There are fibers made of various materials, such as bamboo fiber, lyocell fiber known as "Tencel", graphene fiber, milk protein fiber, etc.

△National Textile Fabrics Museum——Fiber Samples

Bamboo fiber has good air permeability and moisture absorption, and can resist bacteria, remove mites and deodorize.

Lyocell fiber is made from pulp formed by crushing renewable bamboo, wood, etc., and its solvent recovery rate is as high as 99.7%, achieving energy conservation and environmental protection.

Graphene fiber has the properties of UV protection, antibacterial and anti-fungal, antistatic, heat preservation and warming.

△National Textile Fabrics Museum——graphene fiber samples

These tiny fibers are formed into yarn only after complex processes such as opening and cleaning, carding, drawing, roving, and spinning!

Today's textile industry mostly uses advanced equipment such as rapier looms and water jet looms to weave yarn into fabrics. There are tens of thousands of types of fabrics, such as functional fabrics, shirting fabrics, lining fabrics, fleece fabrics, woolen fabrics, worsted fabrics, etc.

△National Textile Fabrics Pavilion——Technology Themed Fabrics

How many stages does fabric need to go through before it can leave the factory?

Before leaving the factory, the fabric must go through a series of tests, and only qualified ones can be put on the market.

Cation led us to see various interesting testing instruments: "Fabric Snag Tester" is used to test whether the fabric is easy to snag, "Washing Machine" is used to test the color fastness and shrinkage of washing...

△National Textile Fabrics Museum——Fabric Snagging Instrument

Generally speaking, fabric testing generally includes the following major items: physical properties test, chemical properties test, moisture absorption and perspiration test, and thermal stability test.

After experiencing the ancient loom in person, Cation said with emotion: "Feel how the ancients made clothes, and you will appreciate modern clothes more."

△National Textile Fabric Museum——Ancient loom model

Exploring fiber "black technology"

Next, Cationic entered the Zhejiang Modern Textile Technology Innovation Center.

Who says clothes must be sewn? With a "seamless weft knitting machine", a single thread can be directly woven into clothes, forming them in one piece. It can also be stronger and will not fall apart. Yoga clothes and yoga pants are woven by this machine.

△ Zhejiang Modern Textile Technology Innovation Center——Seamless Weft Edge Machine

There are wonderful functional fabrics here, such as cut-resistant fabrics that protect workers and photosensitive fabrics that reveal patterns when exposed to light.

Cut-resistant fabrics are made by adding high-strength fibers to the fabrics to achieve cut resistance. Taking aramid fiber as an example, its tensile strength is higher than that of steel wire, and its cut resistance can reach level 5. It has excellent comprehensive properties such as high temperature resistance and chemical corrosion resistance.

△ Functional fabrics: cut-resistant fabrics (left) photosensitive fabrics (right)

Here, the role of fiber is far more than just making clothes! Today, "textiles" not only refer to clothes and cloth, but also include various items made of fibers.

For example, carbon fiber can be made into hydrogen storage tanks for new energy vehicles because of its light texture, strong strength, wear resistance, and high temperature resistance. After curing, its strength is up to ten times that of steel .

△Zhejiang Modern Textile Technology Innovation Center——Hydrogen Storage Tank

In addition to bicycles and airplane models, special cables used to secure floating marine ranches, wind turbines, aircraft carriers, etc. can all be made from fibers.

△Zhejiang Modern Textile Technology Innovation Center——Special Cable Model

From the physical and chemical properties of fibers to their various products, fibers have many interesting and unknown secrets! Welcome to the Textile Science Research Base in the National Textile Fabric Museum and the Zhejiang Modern Textile Technology Innovation Center to learn more about the mysteries of fibers!

Diversity of science education bases

Zhejiang began to cultivate and develop science popularization education bases in 2001. So far, it has 53 national science popularization education bases, 251 provincial science popularization education bases, and 792 municipal science popularization education bases, spread across 11 cities in the province, covering large cities such as Hangzhou and Ningbo , as well as special bases in Jiaxing, Shaoxing, Jinhua and other places, achieving a balanced allocation of science popularization resources .

The types of popular science education bases cover many fields including history and culture, natural sciences, environment, technology , enterprise , health and medicine .

Zhejiang Province Science and Technology Popular Science Education Base

Science and technology: mainly focusing on displaying modern scientific and technological achievements, promoting scientific ideas and technological applications, such as Zhejiang Science and Technology Museum and Zhejiang Tsinghua Flexible Electronics Institute Science Education Base . They stimulate young people's interest in science and creativity through high-tech exhibits and experiments.