The Refashion platform for connecting textiles and footwear recycling stakeholders
LEXICON
Blended into most plastics are additional organic or inorganic compounds, often in small proportions, to allow the material to be transformed, improved or given certain properties. Such additives include plasticizers, dyes, catalysts, flame retardants, stabilizers, lubricants, antistatic, fungicides.
Computer controlled processes to manufacture new objects by depositing materials, usually in layers, such as 3D printing.
Nonwoven manufacturing step: mechanical airstream layering method of fibers (and adhesive particles) to produce a random oriented fibrous web. The Airlay process produces nonwovens between 250 and 4000 g/m2; whereas the Airlaid process produces nonwovens under 250 g/m2, using shorter fibres.
Automated process of sorting products based on spectroscopy like Near InfraRed (NIR) used to facilitate their characterization (shape, composition, colors) before recycling.
Textiles: finishing process used to smooth, coat, or thin a material. Other industries: plastic deformation “rolling” process of materials in pasty form, obtained by compression between 2 counter-rotating rolls (rolling mill).
Conventional spinning method for long and short fibers. Subsequent processes for transforming textile fibers into yarn: carding, producing slivers (or rovings), then yarn. The yarn is obtained by twisting.
Linear arrangement of textile fibers to form a web (nonwoven) or a sliver (yarn spinning).
Production of regenerated cellulose (such as viscose and cellophane) from dissolving cellulosic pulp derived from wood or cellulosic textile waste like cotton.
Pulp is a lignocellulosic fibrous material prepared by chemically or mechanically separating cellulose fibers from wood, fiber crops, wastepaper, or cotton rags. Mixed with water and other chemical or plant-based additives, dissolving pulp is the major raw material used in papermaking and the industrial production of viscose.
Re-producing base components through chemical dissolution of mixed raw materials with one or more solvents.
Extrusion of continuous fibers / (multi)filaments. Several spinning processes exist according to the fiber type: wet-spinning, melt-spinning.
Mechanical shredding or coarse grinding consists in reducing the size of different material types to few centimeters or millimeters.
Surface treatment consisting in applying a coating (lacquer, paint, oil, resin, etc.) onto a substrate (paper, textile, plastic film, metal, etc.).
Extrusion-pelletizing process for manufacturing compounds in the form of granules (pellets) or powder for the plastics or spinning sectors.
Manufacturing processes of composite materials by shaping for example prepregs (pre-impregnated fibers) via SMC (Sheet Molding Compound), or BMC (Bulk Molding Compound).
Production of a web through carding of fibers.
Process for forming coarse pellets, with a viscosity index suitable for extrusion or injection.
Dry or wet separation process according to the relative density, i.e., the ratio of the density of one element to the density of another element taken as reference.
Chemical, enzymatic or heat process of converting a polymer into a monomer or a mixture of monomers.
HSM (High Shear Mixing) devulcanization reverses the vulcanization process of elastomers (natural or synthetic rubber) by breaking the bridges between their macromolecular chains without degrading them, unlike grinding techniques, and no chemical additives.
All textiles and footwear collections.
Recycling textiles or fermentable organic products by treating them with enzymes resulting in a decomposition of base components.
Additives in the form of pulp, powders, or short textile fibers to obtain specific characteristics in any type of polymer (plastics, composites, concretes).
Further mechanical processing of scraps or shredded materials into pulp / powder, the size of the resulting particles varies between 10 and a few hundred micrometers.
A glued surface coating process in which very short fibers (few mm) obtained from finely shredded textiles are applied by projection, giving a suede-like or velvety aspect.
Or melting, is a physical process that results in the phase transition of a substance from a solid to a liquid, typically by the application of heat.
Hydroentanglement, or spunlacing, allows the entanglement of fibers through water jets with no use of binders or adhesives, to produce a nonwoven.
Manufacturing process of thermoformable materials, especially thermoplastics, by injecting molten material into an ad hoc mold to obtain finished parts.
Aerobic process for upgrading organic matter in large quantities into a valuable fertilizer.
Process of separating components of mixtures by using magnets to attract magnetic materials.
Manual separation operation of products into color categories.
Operation in which used products are manually separated into material(s) categories, to facilitate their recycling.
Operation which consists in applying sufficient pressure to modify the density of textiles and form new products without adding a binder.
An Eddy Current separator uses a powerful magnetic field to separate non-ferrous metals from a waste stream, after all ferrous metals have been removed by some arrangement of magnets (overband separator).
Process of reducing, via fine grinding, the average diameter of a solid material’s particles to a very fine powder.
Fibers or polymers are mixed with other metered substances – fillers, plasticizers, additives, etc. in view of producing a new material.
Mechanical nonwovens bonding by needling, creating a physical entanglement of fibers between webs and holding the different layers together. The resulting products are more or less compact felts.
Spinning method mostly used for short fibers Successive operations to transform textile fibers into yarn: carding, producing slivers (or rovings), then yarn production in the rotor of the open-end machine. The resulting yarn is not twisted, unlike a ringspun yarn.
Process of transforming the material into granules or pellets.
Macroscopically homogeneous blend of at least two polymers. The most common categories are immiscible (heterogeneous) polymer blends.
Cutting system producing different shapes or slices.
Manual sorting of collected post-consumer textiles and footwear, into different grades for their subsequent treatment (reuse, recycling, disposal).
The application of projecting with a sprayer a liquid or a powdered solid material in mist or very fine particles, in consistent manner.
Industrial mechanical process involving successive drawing of textiles to recover the fibers. Main applications of the resulting fibers are nonwovens.
Cutting of textiles for formatting into wiping cloths. This process is also used for the removal of trims (buttons, zippers, labels, and extra thicknesses such as pockets, etc.).
Production of nonwovens or of plates bonded by heating, using hot melt additives (fibers, powder) in the case of nonwovens.
Forming of plastic products.
Removal of trims on a garment such as hard points (buttons, rivets, zips, etc.), labels or extra thicknesses (patches, seams…), considered as disruptors to its recycling.
Mechanical process involving successive drawing of textiles in order to extract long fibers suitable for yarn spinning. Process equivalent to garnetting, but less aggressive.
