The applications of textile fabrics have expanded from the traditional apparel sector to encompass numerous high-tech and industrial fields, including aerospace, healthcare, manufacturing, and smart home technologies.
Aerospace field
The metal mesh of the spaceborne deployable antenna is manufactured using warp knitting technology, with ultra‑fine molybdenum wire as the raw material and a gold coating to enhance its reflectivity. An innovatively developed “micro‑tension” warp‑knitting process and associated equipment enable the weaving of single‑strand molybdenum wire, yielding larger, lighter metal meshes—such as the antenna on the Land Exploration Satellite‑4 No. 01, launched in August 2023, which boasts a deployed area comparable to a basketball court, with the lightest mesh weighing less than 20 grams per square meter. The solar array substrate of the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft is woven from a glass‑fiber mesh structure resembling a tennis racket, offering both lightweight construction and resistance to atomic oxygen. The glass fibers are twisted and plied before weaving, then coated with resin to improve their durability in the space environment.
Apparel and Home Furnishings Sector
Functional fabrics are widely used in apparel and home textiles, such as antibacterial loungewear made with sub-micron antibacterial cotton; ice‑cool garments crafted from a blend of specialized functional fibers and mulberry silk; mosquito‑repellent home wear treated with extract from mosquito‑repelling chrysanthemums; and thermal underwear infused with warming ginger‑and‑mugwort fibers. Bedding fabrics continue to evolve, featuring eco‑friendly sets woven from recycled orange‑peel fibers and sustainable materials; water‑sensitive, silky‑smooth, cool‑to‑the‑touch cotton bedding achieved through liquid‑ammonia finishing; and children’s warm, antibacterial blankets that leverage phase‑change material temperature‑control technology and incorporate grass‑coral fibers.
Industrial textiles sector
High-performance industrial textiles find critical applications across numerous industrial sectors. For example, carbon fiber, with its high strength, light weight, and corrosion resistance, is well suited for low-altitude aircraft; microfiber synthetic leather is widely used in automotive interiors; polymer-based artificial blood vessels are employed in medical dialysis; and medical tissue patches woven from silk fibroin can be used to repair abdominal wall tissues.
Smart and Eco-Friendly Fabrics
Smart fabrics integrate sensors and functional materials to enable human–machine interaction. For example, fabrics made from “thermo‑moisture‑responsive polyester fibers” developed by Wuhan Textile University and others can mimic the dynamic opening and closing of human skin pores, intelligently regulating breathability and moisture permeability while dynamically modulating perceived body temperature by 3–5°C; these fabrics have already been incorporated into branded apparel. Eco‑friendly fabrics emphasize sustainability. For instance, a waterless dyeing technology using non‑aqueous media significantly boosts dye utilization and dramatically reduces water consumption during the dyeing process; this technology has been adopted in the sustainable collections of several brands.