Weinheim, February 7, 2017. At the ISPO Trade Show in Munich, the Freudenberg Group unveiled a new technology to the world. Thanks to this innovative technology, sportswear and outdoor jackets will be even better able to protect against cold winter weather. Together with customers, global technology company Freudenberg has developed a new thermal insulation: the comfortemp® fiberball paddings of Freudenberg Performance Materials, a Freudenberg Business Group. These paddings insulate more than twice as well as traditional paddings — and they are as light-weight and soft as down. With the “Superlight Parka” the lifestyle brand Napapijri will be placing its own THERMO-FIBRE® technology “powered by comfortemp®” on the market for the 2017 fall/winter season.
“Paddings as loose fiberballs have been around for a long time. So far it has not been possible to make an interconnected padding from them, however. We are now able to combine the advantages of the existing technologies and products for thermal insulation and to offset the disadvantages,” says Ulrich Scherbel, General Manager Freudenberg Performance Materials Apparel. "The comfortemp® fiberball padding is the first padding in the world that is made out of interconnected little fiberballs."
Advantages of comfortemp® fiberball padding:
- The thermal insulation of comfortemp® fiberball padding is 50 to 80 percent higher than traditional paddings.
- The material is made out of numerous small fiberballs, with many small cushions of air in between. These air cushions generate the high thermal insulation.
- Many small cushions of air make the material extremely permeable. The special pore structure created by the small fiberballs is the reason for the high breathability.
- The consistent structure of the comfortemp® fiberball padding ensures that cold areas do not develop in the padding. This constant fabric can even go through the wash.
- Comfortemp® fiberball padding is a real alternative to down, which is good for animal protection.
- In the processing of down and loose fiberballs, many small pockets have to be quilted for the filling material. With comfortemp® fiberball padding, this quilting is not necessary, or necessary only to a small extent. This feature grants much more freedom and flexibility to the design of jackets and pants.
- In comparison to down and individual fiberballs, processing is very simple for clothing manufacturers. Loose starting materials have to be injected into numerous small individual pockets. In contrast, comfortemp® fiberball padding can be sewn like conventional padding. This saves costs.
- Due to its high resilience of virtually 100 percent, comfortemp® fiberball padding can be vacuum-packed, which reduces the costs of transportation.
Unique technology
With the comfortemp® technology from Freudenberg, apparent opposites are reconciled. Padding that has to withstand the competition with down must be soft and washable. It must have a large volume, while having high tensile strength. “Three aspects were key to the successful development of comfortemp® fiberball padding: our decades of experience and know-how with fiber compositions, collaboration with our associate company Freudenberg Technology Innovation, and close cooperation with our longtime customer Napapijri," explains Scherbel.