1) NERC for Dyeing and Finishing of Textiles
Authorized by Ministry of Science and Technology, NERC for Dyeing and Finishing of Textiles of Donghua University was founded in June of 2000. The center is mainly engaged in the research of textile dyeing & finishing and processing, and the engineerization and application of its significant findings. While assimilating new dyeing and finishing technologies around the world, the center is devoted to technical innovation in this domain. While offering the training of high-qualified technicians and administrators, the center opens the education program for both master degree and doctor degree applicants and postdoctoral researchers. The center greatly contributes to the international academic communication and cooperation at home and abroad.
Depending on the strong textile discipline groups and scientific developmental capability of Donghua University, the center has been in a leading position in China in high-grade cotton fiber dyeing and finishing technology, ecological textile dyeing and finishing technology, high-grade and mixed fiber of multi-component dyeing and finishing technology, the dyeing processing technology new environment-friendly fiber and its relating products, anhydrous dyeing new technology and new dyeing and finishing auxiliaries and finishing agent. Some of those technologies have ascended into international advanced level. To meet the market demands, Funded by Donghua University, Shanghai Handa Dyeing and Finishing Technology Co. Ltd., an independent legal entity qualification was founded to meet the market demands. Shanghai Handa Chemistry Technology Co. Ltd was co-founded between Shanghai Handa Dyeing and Finishing Technology Co. Ltd and other enterprises. It functions as an entity of textile auxiliaries researching, producing and marketing. Professor Yan Kelu of Donghua University works as the director of NERC for Dyeing and Finishing of Textiles.
2) New Fabrics Quick Response Center
The New Fabrics QR Center, cooperated with Oriental International Textiles Import & Export Corporation of Shanghai in establishing Technological Information on Oriental Fabrics and Product Research Center on August 18 last year, whose main tasks include:
1. Collect information on textile industry at home and abroad to establish a multi-functional data base.
2. Test and analyze the new fabrics overseas to interpret their composition and key manufacturing techniques.
3. Independently produce new fabrics in accordance with the trend to participate in the competition of international market.
4. Hold exhibitions of domestic or international fabrics and textile fibers to promote academic exchanges.
5. Form membership system to attract fabric suppliers and enterprises covering fields ranging from material production, spinning, fabric manufacturing, dyeing and finishing to clothes, transforming research fruits to commodity products.
3) 21st Century Green Fiber Research Center
“The New Fabrics Rapidly Response Center” and “The Technological Information on Oriental Fabrics and Product Research and Development Center “ were established by our university and the Oriental International Textile Import and Export Corporation in Shanghai. The tasks of the center go as follows:
1. To collect various information on the textile industry at home and abroad, and establish multi-functional information database.
2. To test and analyze the latest fabrics overseas and to interpret their composition as well as the key techniques in production.
3. To create a number of leading textile products and participate in the international competition according to the trend of international textiles.
4. To hold seminars and exhibitions of domestic and international textile fibers and fabrics, organize academic exchanges, and attend international expositions.
5. Form the membership system to recruit suppliers from raw materials production, spinning, weaving, dyeing, and clothing to fabrics enterprises, transform research fruits into commodities, expand the technical development of the center and the production base, and play a vital role in the product chain :raw materials > semi-finished materials > finished materials > final products>consumers.
According to information from the International Fashion Fabric Conference（IFFC）in New York , features of the 1999 / 2000 winter popular fabrics go as follows:
1. The popular leavening, suede, wool fabric and brush are characterized by bulkiness, softness and warmth, such as corduroy, velveteen twill, flannel, flocking, velvet, imitated leather fabric, etc.
2. Jean cloth still catches on and can be widely used for work uniforms and casual clothes. It is lighter than the jeans and can meet more needs after the processes of anti-creasing, anti-fouling, and arrangement.
3. Comfortable and soft, the recently-developed Tencell with polyester strength and wrinkle resistance has set a trend.
4. Hydrogen elastic fiber can be found in many fabrics, like khaki, cowboy cloth, corduroy, yarn, etc. Applied in the thick wool fabrics, it caters to people’s needs of comfort, beauty and high-grade products.
5. Printing catches on thanks to the wide application of cotton, silk, knitted and yarn dyed fabrics, the adornment effect of which can be strengthened through embroidery, jacquard weave, and swivel.
6. Apply novel or blended fibers to make full use of their unique roles and improve the fabric performance and adornment effect.
7. Prospects of special treatment fabrics are bright, such as superfine fiber fabrics, chemical fiber fabric and anti-static, PU, PVC coatings, etc.
4) Chemical Fiber Engineering Research Center
The Chemical Fiber Engineering Research Center is a school-level research centre with outstanding technology and products. There are professional researchers from Department of Material Science, of Automation, and of Mechanical Engineering. It mainly engages in researches on chemical fibers, textiles, automation and mechanical engineering as well as the promotion of products.
The center boasts great strength of engineering research and product development with three professors, six associate professors and senior engineers, and over ten masters and doctors. Many national scientific and technological projects of it have won awards in China.
Besides research on new materials and technologies, the center also emphasizes commercialization of research findings. More than 50 projects have been finished to realize the industrialized production of functionalized fibers, and many bases like experimental base, production base of chemical fibers, processing base and marketing base have been established.
All the staff in the centre aim for solidarity, struggle, innovation and pragmatism and keep enhancing the research ability. We sincerely welcome you to join us for the common development.
Contact us
Address: Box305, No. 1882, West Yan’ an Road, Shanghai.
Chemical Fiber Engineering Research Center, Donghua University.
Postal code: 200051
Tel: +86 021-62378666，62373677
Fax: +86 021 62378666
E-mail Address: wanghp@dhu.edu.cn
franzezhu@dhu.edu.cn
Contact Person: Zhuping Wang, Fangliang Zhu
5) Development Center of Automotive Textile Materials
Various materials are used in auto manufacturing, metal material, rubber material, and textile material, a material the application of which is on the rise. Its serving as both decoration and reinforcement has developed very fast. Statistics show that automotive textile material accounts for 1/3 of all the industrial textiles and in recent years, it has reached the highest percentage, 35% of industrial textiles in Western Europe.
With development of auto industry, the decorative material of interior automobile has experienced three changes. In the 1950s, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) was widely used as the interior automotive decoration. Later, besides the traditional woven fabric, the fabric mixed by PVC fiber and nylon was used in the seat of the Ford car but proved unpopular. However, a teasel cloth for automobile made by the French people was immensely popular and the Company Volvo received a great deal of benefits from producing polyamide and polyester fabric. Since the 1970s, textiles were used as decorative materials of interior automobile instead of PVC abroad. By the 1980s, with reduction of PVC, some parts of automotive decoration were replaced entirely by the textile. In the 1990s, textiles occupied an important position in the interior automotive decoration. In 1993, the textile of interior automotive decoration in the world took up 371 million square meters. And statistics show that in America, it covers about 220 million square meters per year; in Western Europe, 100 million. The general tendency is that the interior automotive textile is still growing at a rate of 2% per year.
Development of the auto industry provides a developing opportunity for the textile industry in China. However, the automotive textile in our country is in a seriously short supply and most of it depends on imports because our industry of automotive decorative textile started late. In the past, the basic material of the interior automotive decoration was artificial leather and there was no professional manufacturer of automotive carpet in China for a long time. Until the late of the 1980s, there emerged the first fabric manufacturer of car seats. Up to now, there have been dozens of manufacturers producing fabrics of interior automobile. Nowadays, textiles account for over 50% of interior automotive fabrics. Textile fabric has replaced artificial leather as the basic interior decorative fabric in top-grade automobile while in low and middle-grade automobiles it has been adopted gradually. It is predicted that the demand for the textile of interior automotive decorative fabric will have reached 30,000 ton per year and 100,000 ton by 2010.
Decorative Textile for Interior Automobile（DTIA） is a high-technique production with strict demands for its stuff and complicated processing skills. In countries with advanced auto industry like the USA, Germany and Japan, the research of DTIA has been drilled deeper while the research and production in our country are just on the threshold. In recent years, with development of the auto industry, many enterprises in our country have developed this kind of textiles and achieved a certain progress. However, we still have a long way to go.
6) Textile Technology Development Centre for Building Materials
Since Ninth Five-Year Plan, the building material industry has been regarded as one of the four pillar industries of our national economy.
Urbanization is a major step for the economic development of our country. Since dwelling places are in great need, there will be lots of transformation work, including rural housing and public buildings, which constitutes a big market.
Investment in capital construction helps encourage not only the present but also the long-term development of our national economy. According to the economic plan, building material industry is of great significance in developing national economy. The goal of construction industry is to develop “intelligent structures”. According to the Eighth Five-Year Plan intelligent structure is light-duty, energy-saving and safe. Intelligent structure also demands increasingly comfortable environment of living and work, which is embodiment of the sustainable development in buildings.
This development trend of construction industry involves application of advanced technology in traditional building materials, which calls for the multi-disciplinary research, study of textile included. Donghua University thus shall broaden her research field to promote innovation of science and technology in textile industry, which is also necessary for the development of national economy. In such a background, we deliberated with the Science and Technology Committee of Shanghai Municipal Construction and Management Commission and its companies on the development of new building materials around 1998. Finally we initially confirmed that the following aspects are pressed for the participation of textile technology.
① materials for wall
② cement mortar
③ waterproof materials
④ matrixes for the greening of buildings
⑤ materials for cover
Though building material industry covers wide fields, research work is still very arduous. Research fellows in textile technology should actively break the former barrier between different regions to enter this field. Since many foreign firms have already entered Chinese market, competition in this field is intense. Teachers in our universities are expected to take an active part in research work and development of this field, which is not only necessary for development of the new building material field but also for development of textile study itself.
7) Technological Development Center of Agricultural Textile
Agricultural textile, a new industrial product, is an important material to change backward agriculture and extensive operation mode, whose application constitutes a part of great importance in agricultural modernization. Textiles are widely used in agriculture in some developed countries.
At present, foreign agricultural textiles mainly include textile materials for agricultural covering, substrate materials in plant growth, greenhouses, farmland and water conservation and other sectors. Varieties and quantities of agricultural textiles are on the rise in the developed countries. There should be a high demand in China, a large agricultural country with development of agricultural science and technology. However, the fact is that a considerable disparity exists between marketing share and ideal potential market.
In 1993, the consumption of agricultural textile fibers in China was 1.5 million tons. And it’s predicted that the demand of agricultural textiles will be over 8-10 million tons till 2000. It can be used to improve the level of agricultural production, but meanwhile, it’ll become a chance and a challenge to the textile industry. Undoubtedly, it’s of great significance to the research, development, production and application of agriculture and textile industries by means of combining with the growth of crops.
Here three main agricultural textiles are introduced as follows:
Ⅰ. Agricultural Covering Materials
Agricultural covering materials consist of films and fabrics. Films have been widely used in foreign countries in the sixties and seventies. In late seventies, a new-generation agricultural covering materials with non-woven was used in two thermal screen of greenhouses for the early post-cultivation.
Ⅱ.Textiles in Greenhouses
As a kind of agricultural facility, greenhouse plays an important role in the modern agriculture at home and abroad. It significantly improves people’s life and provides them with fresh vegetables and fruits all the year round.
Temperature and climate inside the greenhouse should maintain relatively constant at all seasons. Thus materials for lowering temperature, storing energy and keeping warm are needed.
Ⅲ.Textiles in Flower Industry
Since clean potted flowers with a long flowering period and easy management replace fresh flowers, flower industry constitutes an important part in urban agriculture. Apart from planting, cultivation, fertilization and management technology, a large number of textiles are to be consumed.
The main varieties go as follows:
ⅰ. A large number of textile materials are needed in substrate cultivation of potted flowers as fiber materials can reinforce the root system, water and fertilizer and help breathe.
ⅱ. Before entering a family, we should firstly consider its beautifying effect. The layer of non-woven cloth covered on the surface of substrate materials can prevent water evaporation and pests, and keep warm. What’s more, printings and colors on the non-woven fabrics add the beauty.
ⅲ. The traditional clayey and plastic flower pots only fit the long-term use and pose great pollution to cities. Therefore, most foreign countries turn to flower pots which are composed of degradable fibers, such as wood fiber, straw fiber, and appropriate adhesive. The permeability of pots, degradation of life and other properties are controlled through adjusting adhesives.
ⅳ. At present, foreign countries largely adopt the special non-woven cloth to package the fresh flowers. This kind of non-woven cloth is not beautiful, but also helps keep flowers fresh.
8) Technology Development Center of Geosynthetics
1. Geosynthetics has been regarded as the fourth largest building material (after the three main materials: steel, cement and timber) in the world, the characteristics of which go as follows:
(1) Different Constituents
Steel and cement are inorganic substances, chemically combining elements like Fe, C, Ca, Mg, Si, O by metallic and electrovalent bond, while Geosynthetics is an organic one, chemically combining elements like C、H、O、N by covalent bond. Thus it is characterized by thermo-optical instability, heat-resistance, inflammability, etc.
(2) Different Mechanical Properties
Compared with that of steel and cement, strength and modulus of Geosynthetics are low. Geosynthetics, with the properties of malleableness, flexibility and impact-resistance, is especially suitable for building projects of great deformation, such as projects in soft soil, marsh, frozen soil areas, etc.
(3) Light Weight
Specific gravity of Geosynthetics is smaller than that of steel and cement. (Geosynthetics: 0．88～1.6t／cu. cm.; Steel: 7.8g/cu.cm.; Cement: 2.7g/cu.cm.)
(4) Different Processing Methods
The technology of pyrolytic smelting is adopted to process steel and the technology of high temperature calcination is chose for cement. But in Geosynthetics, geotextile is woven with chemical fibers (such as PA, PP, PET, etc.), needle-punched geotextile is needled with staple fibers (such as PP PET, etc), and the basic chemical fiber is made by melt spinning. In a broad sense, geotextile, a kind of building materials, is much better than traditional textile for clothes. Apart from cohesive soil, cohesionless soil and other peculiar soils are involved in the geosynthetics which is beyond the scope of the common soil and stretch to the study of tailing, ocean soil, polluted soil, etc. Thanks to interdisciplinary, the application of Geosynthetics will be expanded to a broader material space.
2. Simple in application as it is, Geosynthetics is multi-functional and can bring significantly economic benefits. In many projects such as projects of construction, water conservancy etc, no material can be as useful as Geosynthetics that has so many functions to solve the problems of those projects. Generally speaking, Geosynthetics can help consolidate subsoil, prevent erosion, drain and stabilize slopes and so on. With the development of normalization, standardization and legalization, application of Geosynthetics on a large scale will be bound to happen.
3. The output of major raw materials of Geosynthetics has increased from 2,900,000 tons to 4,000,000 tons per year during the Ninth Five-Year Plan period. Proportion of differential and functional fibers has been raised from 16% to 25% in particular. Chemical fiber industry will lay solid foundation for the development, application and spread of Geosynthetics.
4. China’s textile industry is now under structural adjustment. The proportion of the three main applications (clothing, decoration and industry) has changed from 74：17：9 to 60：25：15. In recent three years, the cost of the infrastructure construction in China is up to RMB750 billion, 1~2% of which is spent in Geosynthetics by foreign standard (i.e. RMB7.5~15billion). It is predicted that geotextile’s development will become a new breakthrough and it will turn into a new economic growth point in the textile sector of China.
5. Geosynthetics, a comprehensively interdisciplinary subject and a new product of modern disciplines, involves study of textile, plastic, petrochemical, soil, water conservancy, geotechnical construction, etc. The development of Geosynthetics will raise the whole level of infrastructure construction. As technology is the first productive force, we must value technical reformation and innovation. “Innovation sustains the progress of a nation and is an inexhaustible motive force for the prosperity of a country. A nation without innovative capability is hard to stand among the nations of the world.” Jiang Zemin pointed out.
9) Advanced Manufacturing Technique R&D Center
Advanced Manufacturing Technique R&D Center is affiliated to Mechanical Institute of Donghua University.
Electromechanical Equipment and Modern Integrated Manufacturing Technique Research Institute are both high-level inter-disciplinary research entities that cover scientific research, personnel training, high-tech transformation and engineering. Shanghai Haomin Information and Technique Corporation, one sub-branch of the Center, is a high-tech enterprise based on the modern enterprise system, whose main sources come from different institutes of DHU .It has also welcomed some experts in technique and management from other firms and colleges. Our center keeps exchanging ideas with prestigious universities at home and abroad.
The center and the research institute work on the scientific research and teaching in manufacturing techniques, the informatization of the manufacturing and industry automation. It has participated in national and provincial scientific projects such as National Nature Science Foundation of China, National High Technology Research and Development Project 863 and National Technique Innovation, which have made great contributions to our national scientific development and cultivated talented advanced technicians, thus benefiting the country, economically and socially.
The center and the research institute are moving onto an energetic academic team led by professors, associate professors and advanced engineers.
The centre and its company are now engaged in theoretical research and engineering applications, on the grounds of core techniques in advanced mechanical automation. We advocate that theory should be applied in practice.
Our main business includes:
1. Advanced technique consulting service
(1)Demanded analysis of high-tech and its operating guide;
(2)Solutions to tricky problems of enterprises;
(3)Basic training on informatization of the enterprise, software development and maintenance, and numerical control programming.
2. Product design
(1)Industrial design of electromechanical and textile & apparel products;
(2)The optimal design of electromechanical and textile & apparel products;
(3)The realization and standard transformation of engineering design.
3. Manufacturing
(1) Technical and engineering design of complex components;
(2) NC programming based on three-dimensional or two-dimensional design;
(3) The design and making of clamping apparatuses in machining.
4. Informatization of the enterprises
(1) Solutions to the informatization of medium-sized and small firms;
(2) Network construction and hardware configuration, the purchase of custom-tailored software, the engineering implementation and supervision, especially solutions to the tricky problems in textile & apparel industry ;
(3)Development and secondary development of applied software or system;
(4)Integration of information platform or system..
10) Carpet Equipment Research Center
Carpet equipment research center of Donghua University is a unique institute which specializes in research, design and manufacture of blanket equipment domestically. There are more than 30 experts who are adept at textile machine design, carpet manufacturing skill research, electric control and software design. It has the comprehensive ability in the invention of new machine, the restructuring of old machine, and can provide with improved technical support and service.
The institute has fruitful experience in the field of inventing blanket equipment with large-sized corporations for many years, providing them with many kinds of advanced equipment such as level loop pile, flat terry, and high-cut bottom loop; high and low loop jacquard, and multi-terry jacquard. It has applied for many patents of invention and software copyrights, many of which have won multiple provincial awards.
Tel: 021-67709999
Address: 2999 North Renning Road, Songjiang district, Shanghai.
Email: dtzb@dhu.edu.cn
11) Technology Development Center of Textile Material for Biomedicine
The medical textile has come into being for quite a long time. It is based on fiber and fabric, specializing in medical application. It is a novel and unique part in the field of textile industry.
(1) Categories of medical textile
According to the functions and applications, the medical textile can be divided into general medical textile and high-functional medical textile. The former involves medical care cloth, cloth for patients and wards, isolated clothes for medical care personnel, and cloth for operating room, etc. The latter is made by high-tech fabric material, which holds various functions, including the following four categories:
--health care: sterilization and deodorization for clothes, shoes and hats, etc.
--medical treatment: the textile for homeostasis and itch-free, comfort, and anti-viral ones
--imitation device: artificial blood vessel, artificial airway, artificial esophagus and artificial kidney
--protection type: various kinds of radiation proof clothes (x-ray proof, neutron proof, electromagnetic radiation proof)
It can also be categorized as follows:
Non-graft material-- for external use, such as wound dressing, bandage and plaster
Transplant material--used as suture for the wound mending or replacement, blood vessel graft, artificial joint
Artificial organ--kidney, liver, lung
Sanitary health care product--bedding, clothes, surgical clothes, fabric, and the device for the separation, filter, gathering and condensation for plasma
(2) The medical field and related products of medical textile
Fibers used in medical treatments and operations can be divided into natural fiber and synthetic fiber, biodegradable fiber and non-biodegradable fiber, which should have the quality of non-toxicity, non-allergy, non-carcinogenicity and no physical or chemical changes during disinfection. Cotton, silk and rayon of viscose, the widest use of natural fiber, are used as non-graft material and sanitary health care product. The common chemical fiber includes polyester, polyamide, PTFE, polypropylene, carbon fiber and glass fiber.
Compared to the traditional pure cotton woven medical textile, the medical non-woven fabric holds the qualities of high filter capacity to bacteria and dust, low infection rate in operation, convenient sterilization and easy composition to other materials.
In recent years, the R & D of new anti-bacterial textile are taking process in many countries, including the research of new fiber, new polymer, new processing technology, and many new applications of sanitary health care, which can kill the bacteria more efficiently.
For example, France has recently adopted the grafting technology into medical textile, which is called “medical textile”. Dupont Dacron uses fiber to produce pillows and quilts, which are called “the breathing bedding” because of its advantages of mould proof and allergy proof. ANTRON carpet yarn is a kind of special fiber, holding the features of anti-static, high resistance to flame, high color fastness and smooth surface, etc.
In conclusion, the medical textile is based on material and fabric. Its rapid development responds to the medical need of people and the research of new textile materials. Medical textile is a quite potential and promising field.