Research Excellence

Auxetic textiles, a category of fiber-based materials that possesses nonconventional properties including double curved shape under bending, high indentation resistance, high energy and vibration absorption capabilities, have been widely applied in in garments for such functions as impact protection, medical care and smart wearable devices, and so forth.

Having a negative Poisson's ratio, auxetic textiles tend to expand in all directions when stretched and shrink when compressed, hence enabling high level of comfortability and flexibility, as well as possibilities when applied in clothing design.

Prof. Hu Hong from the Institute of Textiles and Clothing is a pioneer in the field. He has successfully invented a series of auxetic materials, including auxetic yarns, auxetic fabrics and auxetic textile composites by altering the structures of fibers using different types of textile technologies including yarn spinning, knitting, weaving and braiding.

As the newly invented auxetic materials were originated from the laboratory, challenges were found in the initial stage of the real manufacturing environment. The lack of equipment to produce commercial auxetic materials, which have a more complex fiber assemble structure, had inspired Prof. Hu to develop new equipment himself.

Also, the manufacturing processes for his new invention had to be specially designed as there had been no similar process that could be referenced. The limited production capability in the initial stage has lead to shortage of supply of usable auxetic textiles, restricting mass production of commercial end-use products.

The research team is gaining experience in auxetic textils production, commercialization of more high quality auxetic textiles has been made available, and Prof. Hu's inventions have been applied in medical care, sports, functional and protective clothing, and wearable technology, etc.

拉脹紡織品：一種具有負泊松比的新類型紡織材料

拉脹紡織品是一種擁有非傳統特性的纖維性材料，它彎曲時會呈現雙曲線形狀，以及具備高抗凹壓、高能量及震動吸收的能力。這種材料獲廣泛應用於紡織服裝中，例如功能性服裝、防撞設備、醫療護理儀器以及智能可穿戴裝置等。

具有負泊松比的拉脹紡織品在拉伸時會向各個方向膨脹，擠壓時則會收縮。拉脹紡織品材料具有高度的舒適性和靈活性，可應用於在服裝設計。

紡織及服裝學系胡紅教授是研究這類紡織材料的先驅。他透過採用包括紡紗、針織、機織和編織在內的不同類型的紡織技術來改變纖維集合體的結構，研發出一系列拉脹物材料，包括拉脹紗線、拉脹布料和拉脹紡織複合材料。

由於這些新開發的拉帳物料都是源自實驗室，在生產初期，團隊遇到不少挑戰，包括缺乏能生產商用、具有復雜的纖維結構的拉帳紡織物的設備。然而，這些挑最終啓發了胡教授自行研發新的生產設備。

此外，由於巿場上並無類似的生產工藝可供參考，因此生產拉帳物料的過程必需經過專門設計。初期因產能有限，導致可用拉脹紡織品供應短缺，限制了商業終端產品的大規模生產。

目前，隨著研究團隊累積了更多實際的生產經驗，他們已推出了更多適合商用的優質拉脹紡織品，同時胡教授的研究亦已經應用於醫療、運動、功能性及防護性服裝，以及可穿載的科技產品等範圍。