Composite materials for use in garments or footwear, and a process for manufacture, and use thereof. Composite materials may have one or more functional properties including water repellency, antimicrobial function, insulation, moisture wicking, directional moisture transfer, body heat reflection, exterior heat reflection, body heat redistribution through conduction, as well as prevention of body heat loss through heat conduction.

Dimensionally stable open woven fabrics formed from a plurality of high tenacity warp elongate bodies interwoven and bonded with a plurality of transversely disposed, high tenacity weft elongate bodies, composite articles formed therefrom, and to a continuous process for forming the composite articles.

A liquid binder composition for binding fibrous materials in the fabrication of resin-infusible preform is disclosed. The binder composition is an aqueous dispersion containing (a) one or more multifunctional epoxy resins, (b) at least one thermoplastic polymer, (c) one or more surfactants selected from anionic surfactants, nonionic surfactants, and combinations thereof, (d) water, and is essentially free of organic solvents. Also disclosed is an emulsification process for producing the liquid binder composition.

A wrappable textile sleeve for protecting a conductive elongate member against at least one of EMI, RFI or ESD and method of construction thereof is provided. The sleeve includes a plurality of warp filaments and at least one weft filament woven with one another to form a woven substrate. The woven substrate has opposite sides extending lengthwise between opposite ends. The opposite sides are wrappable about a central longitudinal axis into overlapping relation with one another to circumferentially enclose the elongate member within a cavity of the sleeve. At least some of the warp filaments are provided as generally flat, thin conductive filaments shield the conductive elongate member against the effects of EMI, RFI and/or ESD.

The present invention relates to fiber glass strands, yarns, fabrics, composites, prepregs, laminates, fiber-metal laminates, and other products incorporating glass fibers formed from glass compositions. The glass fibers, in some embodiments, are incorporated into composites that can be used in reinforcement applications. Glass fibers formed from some embodiments of the glass compositions can have certain desirable properties that can include, for example, desirable electrical properties (e.g. low D.sub.k) or desirable mechanical properties (e.g., specific strength).

Fiber-containing composites are described that contain woven or non-woven fibers, and a cured binder formed from a binder composition that includes (1) a reducing sugar and (2) a crosslinking agent that includes a reaction product of a urea compound and a polycarbonyl compound. Exemplary reaction products for the crosslinking agent may include the reaction product of urea and an ,-bicarbonyl compound or an ,-bicarbonyl compound. Exemplary fiber-containing composites may include fiberglass insulation.

A joint tape for drywall includes a substrate layer having an elongate shape in a lengthwise direction and being flexible in the lengthwise direction and in a transverse direction. The tape further includes a covering layer disposed in bonding relation on the substrate layer. The covering layer is rigid in the transverse direction and configured to withstand compressive forces applied generally in the transverse direction and shear stresses applied generally along the transverse direction.

Described are moisture responsive materials. The materials may have tunable moisture permeability. A material may be a substrate that includes apertures. The apertures are configured to open or close depending on the humidity environment to which the substrate is exposed. The apertures have at least two regions of polymer gel, which may have different amounts of crosslinking. The apertures may be formed from at least two polymer gels having at least two different crosslinker loadings. The materials may be used in articles of manufacture. For example, the materials are used in wearable articles, outdoor articles, medical articles, packaging articles, building articles, filtration/separation articles, and the like.

A yarn or thread may include a plurality of substantially aligned filaments, with at least ninety-five percent of a material of the filaments being a thermoplastic polymer material. Various woven textiles and knitted textiles may be formed from the yarn or thread. The woven textiles or knitted textiles may be thermal bonded to other elements to form seams. A strand that is at least partially formed from a thermoplastic polymer material may extend through the seam, and the strand may be thermal bonded at the seam. The woven textiles or knitted textiles may be shaped or molded, incorporated into products, and recycled to form other products.

Disclosed is the preparation of improved high strength nylon staple fibers having a denier per filament of 1.0 to 3.0, a tenacity T at break of at least about 6.0, and a load-bearing capacity, T.sub.7, of greater than 3.2. Such nylon staple fibers are produced by preparing tows of relatively uniformly spun and quenched nylon filaments, drawing and annealing such tows via a two-stage drawing and annealing operation using relatively high draw ratios and then cutting or otherwise converting the drawn and annealed tows into the desired high strength nylon staple fibers. The nylon staple fibers so prepared can be blended with other fibers such as cotton staple fibers to produce nylon/cotton (NYCO) yarns which are also of desirably high strength.