A foamed, opacifying element useful as a light-blocking article has a substrate; an opacifying layer disposed on the substrate, and a functional composition disposed over the opacifying layer. The functional composition comprises: (i) inorganic or organic spacer particles having a mode particle size of at least 1 m and up to and including 100 m, and which inorganic or organic spacer particles resist melt flow at a pressure of up to and including 100 psi (689.5 kPa) and a temperature of up to and including 220 C.

A natural fabric or textile product is coated and protected with a waterproofing composition comprising a crosslinking polyvinyl acetate (XPVAc or x-PVAc) emulsion polymer or adhesive applied and cured as a first coating layer or a primer and a coating layer of acrylic, alkyd, asphalt, emulsion polymer isocyanate, epoxy, lacquer, latex, polyurethane, urethane, or vinyl ester coated over the cured crosslinking polyvinyl acetate as a second coating layer or a topcoat. The natural fabric product is fabricated by weaving, knitting or felting the fibers, yarns or threads of vegetable or plant fibers from cotton, sisal, kenaf, hemp, jute, flax, reed, sugarcane, ramie, henequen, raffia, nettle, milkweeds, palm, coir, grass, Spanish moss, New Zealand flax, kapok, sugarcane, bamboo, or wood, or those of the protein fibers from wool, silk, spider threads, sea silk, or the combination thereof.

A foamed, opacifying element is prepared to have a light-blocking value (LBV) of at least 4. A method is carried out in a specific order with a unique series of steps including: providing a unique foamable aqueous composition; aerating that foamable aqueous composition to a foam density of at least 0.1-0.5 g/cm.sup.3; disposing the foamed aqueous composition onto a surface of a porous substrate; drying the foamed aqueous composition without substantial curing of the binder material therein, to provide a dry foamed composition on the surface, without substantial curing; densifying the dry foamed composition to provide a dry opacifying layer in a foamed, opacifying element; and curing the dry opacifying layer in the foamed, opacifying element.

A method is designed to prepare foamed, opacifying elements each having a target light blocking value (LBV.sub.T) of at least 3, using a textile fabric substrate with a light blocking value (LBV.sub.S). The LBV.sub.T-S difference is calculated; a foamable aqueous composition is chosen; a dry coating weight for the foamable aqueous composition (when foamed) is determined to form a single dry opacifying layer that is foamed, dried, and densified to provide a dry thickness at least 20% less than the original dry thickness. The single dry opacifying layer a has light blocking value that is equal to LBV.sub.T-S, 15%. The desired foamable aqueous composition can be chosen from a set of similar compositions to achieve the desired LBV.sub.T with the noted textile fabric substrate using suitable mathematical formula relating dry coating weight to light blocking value and a suitable data processor.

A foamable aqueous composition can be used to form foamed, opacifying elements with one or more dry foamed layers. These compositions generally contain: (a) 0.5 to 20 weight % of porous particles comprising a continuous polymeric phase and discrete pores dispersed within the continuous polymeric phase. The porous particles have a mode particle size of 2 to 50 m; (b) at least 20 weight % of a binder material; (c) 0.1 to 30 weight % of a combination of various additives including dispersants, plasticizers, inorganic or organic pigments and dyes, flame retardants, biocides, fungicides, optical brighteners, tinting colorants, metal flakes, and inorganic or organic fillers; (d) water; and (e) at least 0.001 weight % of an opacifying colorant different from (c). The foamable aqueous composition is suitably aerated, disposed on a porous substrate, dried, and crushed on the porous substrate to form a foamed, opacifying element.

The present disclosure refers to a cork yarn, in particular a yarn with incorporated cork, textile structures comprising said yarn, obtention method and uses thereof.

The cork yarn described in the present disclosure is useful to the textile and clothing industry, and can be applied extensively in the textile industry namely in the manufacture of fabrics for clothing and home textiles, in particular technical clothing, duvets, blankets, covers, etc.

A coating composition for fabrics, wherein the coating composition comprises a pollen denaturing agent, an anti-microbial agent and a polymeric carrier, wherein the pollen denaturing agent is different to the anti-microbial agent.

A natural fabric or textile product is coated and protected with a waterproofing composition comprising a crosslinking polyvinyl acetate (XPVAc or x-PVAc) emulsion polymer or adhesive applied and cured as a first coating layer or a primer and a coating layer of acrylic, alkyd, asphalt, emulsion polymer isocyanate, epoxy, lacquer, latex, polyurethane, urethane, or vinyl ester coated over the cured crosslinking polyvinyl acetate as a second coating layer or a topcoat. The natural fabric product is fabricated by weaving, knitting or felting the fibers, yarns or threads of vegetable or plant fibers from cotton, sisal, kenaf, hemp, jute, flax, reed, sugarcane, ramie, henequen, raffia, nettle, milkweeds, palm, coir, grass, Spanish moss, New Zealand flax, kapok, sugarcane, bamboo, or wood, or those of the protein fibers from wool, silk, spider threads, sea silk, or the combination thereof.

A screen includes a mesh substrate having an openness of greater than 30% when viewed at 0 incidence, the mesh substrate having a first major surface and a second major surface, the first major surface including a first coating, the first major surface having a first reflectance value, wherein the first reflectance value has an average value of greater than about 10% as measured by an EN410 standard and a diffuse reflection profile at all viewing angles from 89 to 89, excluding an angle of direct illumination as measured by a scattering distribution function technique using a Goniometer, wherein the diffuse reflection profile provides a reduction in view through the mesh substrate when viewed from 89 to 89.

Provided is a process for producing a coating on a substrate comprising one or more steps of crushing a dried layer of a foamed aqueous coating composition, wherein the aqueous coating composition comprises a collection of multi-stage copolymer particles having a weight average diameter of 2-20 m, wherein said multi-stage copolymer particles comprise a core having a glass transition temperature (Tg) of 20 C. or less. Also provided is a coated substrate made by that process.