Spray-on Fabric
invented by Manel Torres
The problem of wearing
what clothes, with what pants to create fresh and impressive images is faced
throughout our everyday lives. With the invention of spray-on fabric
technology, which is one of "The 50 Best Inventions of 2010" (Belinda
Luscombe, 2010), we are able to design and contrive our garments by the use of
spray cans. It comes out in the form we desire and becomes our unique clothes
to solve this problem.
“When I first began this project I really wanted to make a futuristic, seamless, quick and comfortable material (Priya Ganapati, 2010),” says Manel Torres,who invents Spray-on Fabric technology through interdisciplinary research, linking engineering, design and material science (with the collaboration between Imperial College London and his company called Fabrican). Aware of the slow process of constructing garments, this instant, “sprayable” and non-woven fabric is created by him to speed up this process. The principle of spraying textiles straight onto a body or dress form is bonding and liquefying fibers. “The fabric is formed by cross-linking fibers, which cling to one another to create the garment, says Fabrican (Priya Ganapati, 2010)”. It consists of short fibers combined with polymers to bind them together and dissolved in a solvent that delivers the fabric in liquid form (Emilie Marmey, 2013). It can be sprayed by either a spray gun or an aerosol can. The solvent evaporates when the spray touches the surface and then the fibers bond and adhere to form a snug-fitting garment. It can be peeled off, washed and re-worn, as well as molded or tailored to meet the needs of wearers.
Dr. Manel Torres
demonstrating the Fabrican
photo by Miguel Sobreira
photo by Miguel Sobreira
“As a non-woven material, Spray-on Fabric offers possibilities for binding, lining, repairing, layering, covering and moulding in ways previously not imaginable. (Emilie Marmey, 2013)”. Not just for clothing and fashion, using aerosol technology to create garments has been developed for use in household, industrial, decorative and personal and health care applications, positively impacting the lives of millions of people and the environment.
Fashion is opened to everyone. Aerosol technology enables designers to create unique garments with different colors and materials that are hardly joined together by traditional knitting. Materials can be combined in infinite combinations and hence creates a variety of textures. Designers’ creative ideas can come true to create innovative products. This carrier technology also allows every individuals to create their own clothes with different colors and patterns easily and instantly. Thus, it opens new vistas for personalized fashion. Fashion is no longer too far for us to reach because garments can be made at anytime and anywhere, even just an impromptu design. “The method of spraying, Torres says, gives designers and consumers immense flexibility to hand-craft a wide range of apparel, such as shirts, coats and undergarments, on the fly. (Tuan C. Nguyen, 2013)”. Due to its great flexibility, we can customize our clothes, such as creating additional pockets and patterns. “Spray-on fabric permits the use of innovative shapes, varying thicknesses, and biomimetic forms unobtainable by any other means. (Fabrican Ltd, 2013)”. In consequence, same garments can have different new looks whenever we want according to our needs.
(Left)
fashion show at the Imperial College London
(Right) detail of dress
photo by Ian Cole
(Right) detail of dress
photo by Ian Cole
Our lives can be more convenient and fun with this novel fabric. When using this technology, the process of constructing garments in traditional way can be speeded up through a seamless way. Some clothes which have specific usages, such as the uniform of athletes, doctors, the police and firemen can be incorporated and updated with the latest and advanced functions by using this technology. For instance, high-visibility patches for cyclists can be created by reflective material (Fabrican Ltd, 2013). The garments can be bound, repaired and moulded handily. Moreover, the standard sizes provided by various brands may be different and may not fit everyone’s body shape perfectly. The trouble of finding suitable clothes from the standardized sizes can be solved by this fabric which would almost magically fit the body like a second skin, and meanwhile, have the appearance of clothing. It can also be a 3D sketch tool to measure the body sizes accurately so as to customize the size of your desired clothes.
Nonetheless, some people may concern the solid waste problem by reason of the fast speed of production process. Since fabrics can be produce instantly and easily, tremendous unused clothes will be discarded. By repairing and recycling aging clothes, the solid waste problem can be solved. “The material themselves can be dissolved into the same solvent and re-sprayed again and again. (LYBIO.NET, 2012)” Spray-on Fabric can be quickly transformed into a new clothing item, and hence the aging fabrics and materials can be reused and will not become waste. For the financial consideration, the production cost of this is relatively lower than purchasing clothes outside since we can re-dissolve the unwanted garments. Consequently, a few different fabrics can be sprayed out by same can of solvent to lower the cost of purchasing raw materials.
It can be re-dissolved.
Because of its flexible
adhesive properties, it is useful in medical aspect. It can be used in developing
new types of wound healing products, bandages, casts and transdermal patches in
a sterile environment by adding certain additives. It is convenient to bring
along this carrier technology in the ambulance for delivery of fragrance or
medical active substances. Since just a few cans of spray-on fabric needed, it
can reduce the space required for storing large amounts of bandages and
patches, and provide space for carrying other vital medical machines in order to
meet different patients’ needs. These novel wound healing products contain
drugs which basically help patients healing the wound faster. The advantage of
it over the traditional one is that it can be sprayed out immediately to cover and
fit the wound perfectly like a second skin, while providing better protections
and various degrees of toughness. New transdermal patches can be used for non-invasive
medical treatment, such as drug delivery through penetration; and for aesthetic
purposes, for example, patients can spray out patches that match their skin
tone to better hide the patch.
Different
materials can be added in it to produce different texture.
For household use,
several household products can be created from a can instantly by adding or synthesizing
various new components in the liquid suspension. Creating hygiene covers is one
of the example. For instance, the waterproof, yet flexible, soft and long
lasting coverings created for mattresses, pillows and cushions are ideally suited
for hotels and hospitals, since there are lots of covers of beds, pillows and
so forth required to change frequently. Moreover, we can replace the products that
likely to be filled with germs with a new sterile one constantly instead of
washing them again and again, such as the tea towels used in kitchen. Also, spray-on
fabric can perform the same function as pesticide. With the addition of
substances from pesticide, we can spray a patch on the wall which can catch insects
by attracting and adhering them on it.
Patches
Besides, to promote personal hygiene, the clothes we wear can add handy non-woven fabrics as deodorant pads or liners. It can be removed and replaced whenever we want. Therefore, we can lower the numbers of clothes, underwear and socks we bring when go travelling so as to reduce space required in luggage.
On account of the
mission of Fabrican, which is to develop prototype and innovative products in collaboration
with partners from various sectors, aerosol technology will have more and more different
applications in
the future. However, Spray-on Fabric is not the first technology using the
idea of spraying as Spray-on hair, Spray-on latex body paint (NSFW) and
Spray-on Skin are the previous technologies using this concept. In 1990, Ron
Popeil's factory unleashed Spray-on hair (Goog Looking Hair, 1990), which aims
at filling in those thin see-through spots and building up bald spot with tiny
life-like fibers. It binds the thin or wispy hair and increases its size by 5
to 6 times. So, “Instant hair” can be gained from a can to solve the alopecia.
Before
Before
After
Furthermore, Spray-on latex body paint is a temporary body art that lasts for a few hours only. It can cover a large area of the human body with a smooth appearance. Artists liberate to spray a variety of media, including paints, inks, dyes, and even makeup using airbrush.
Additionally, Spray-on skin is developed by scientist Marie Stoner and plastic surgeon Dr Fiona Wood of Perth, Western Australia to perform "scarless woundless healing" (Wikipedia, 2013). This project is on-going and its goal targets to explore tissue engineering and moved from growing skin sheets to spraying skin cells. This is a skin culturing treatment for burns victims, which can shorten the days required to produce enough cells to cover major burns by 16 days.
Spray-on-skin-gerlach
Despite
using the same spray-on concept, they are vary in the features and scope of applications.
The spray-on concept of the aerosol technology has been further improved and become
applicable in many other areas and industries. Spray-on hair has only one
application and need to reapply continuously to restore the pretty appearance
of “hair” since it washes out in shampoo. People with the problem of going bald
may think it is troublesome and inconvenient, and hence may use the other
more convenient ways and products to replace it. Even though the advanced body painting is less prone to
chipping off, the lasting period is short. Additionally, the spray-on skin
project is still on-going, it cannot conclude whether its functions is successful
or not but the idea is innovative. In contract, Spray-on Fabric has wide
applications and a long lasting period that can be washed and stored in closet.
It is more durable. The scope and areas of spray-on skin and fabrics are different but spray-on
fabrics has great potentials to expand its applicable aspects in the future.
It can be peeled
off, washed and re-worn.
Torres has deemed “ready for production, (Tuan C. Nguyen, 2013)” to indicate this technology using for producing garments is no longer in the prototype stage but the prototype of further applications are still testing. Despite its wide applications in numerous areas, some problems of the technology is still needed to be worked out. For instance, the strong smell of solvent around the fabric. What is more, producing tight-fitting clothing can be its selling point but meanwhile is its challenge. For the people who are facing overweight and obesity problems, they may not want to wear snug clothes due to their external physical appearance. This spray-on fabric may not suitable for everyone. If these problems can be solved, this technology will be even more popular in manufacturing clothes and can widely apply in different areas
“Fashion was our starting point, but we’re now also realizing the technology has so many applications that can benefit other industries, (Tuan C. Nguyen, 2013)” says Torres.
By incorporating nano-technology in smart fabrics and the use of
Spray-on skin in the medical and cosmetic industry and so on, the technology invented
by Fabrican will have a huge potential to revolutionize the future development
of various industries. Due to the variety of substances able to be dispensed
through today's aerosol technology, garments can be combined by different
materials for different uses. It can easily spray on to any surface, which enables
tailoring according to the needs of the customers in order to make life
more convenient, healthier and fun (Fabrican Ltd, 2013). Different parties will
gain mutual benefits through the development of Spray-on Fabric technology and it has future growth potential.
Relevant videos on Youtube:
5.
Spray-On Fabric: Manel Torres
at TEDxImperialCollege (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW6Gv-IoErw)
8.
1990's INFOMERCIAL HELL #19:
Spray paint the bald away with GLH, by Ronco, of course!
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GeF7A05zQ8)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GeF7A05zQ8)
Reference:
Belinda Luscombe (2010). The 50 Best
Inventions of 2010: Spray-On Fabric. Time Magazine, 22 November issue.
Priya Ganapati (2010). Make Clothes Out of
a Can With Spray-On Fabric. Wired.com. Retrieved from: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/09/spray-on-fabric/.
Emilie Marmey (2013). Spray-on Fabric.
FashionLab. Retrieved from: http://fashionlab.3ds.com/spray-on-fabric/.
Tuan C. Nguyen (2013). This Spray-On Fabric Is a Wardrobe In a Can. Smithsonianmag.com. Retrieved from: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/this-spray-on-fabric-is-a-wardrobe-in-a-can-180947851/#ixzz2tCiEsqbT.
Fabrican Ltd (2013). Retrieved from: http://www.fabricanltd.com/index.php.
Lybio.net (2012). Retrieved from: http://lybio.net/manel-torres-spray-on-clothing/science-technology/.
Good Looking Hair (1990). Retrieved from: http://www.glh.biz/.
Wikipedia (2013). Spray-on Skin. Retrieved
from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spray-on_skin.
