Technical Textiles & Composite Manufacturing - a guide to best practice

Technical Textile materials and products are those where the fabric or fibrous component is selected principally but not exclusively for its performance and properties as opposed to its aesthetic or decorative characteristics.

Technical textiles comprise a diverse range of manufacturing activities tied to broad end-use markets. The industry embraces products ranging from wiping cloths for domestic use to the more high performance market such as heart valves, aerospace composites and architectural fabrics. The supply chain that connects fibre producers with end-use markets is a long and complex one. It embraces different size companies from fibre producers through yarn and fabric manufacturers, finishers, converters, and fabricators who incorporate technical textiles into their own products or use them as an essential part of their business operations

This document aims to look further into the manufacturing of technical textiles, including their diverse and varied range of applications, the growth of the market worldwide and what they are driven by.