Contract textiles for an attractive hospital environment
Attractive design of the interiors of healthcare institutions play an important role, as people live longer and longer they are spending more time in hospitals, care homes and health clinics. The social trend towards wellness and an environment in which one feels good is complemented by the holistic view of the patient’s body, soul and spirit. This stance is gaining in importance and will lead to growing demands on the way institutions in the wellness sector are furnished. In the process the intention is that the ambience in their facilities should support the process of recovery, in that the patients appreciate attractive, modern design. Decorative textiles and partitions also enhance the feeling of privacy and help reduce noise in areas that are sparsely furnished.
As the bearer of the “corporate design“ of a hospital or care home, textiles can support and communicate the image of the institution. Colours play a decisive role here, in that they can also be used as a means of guidance, to differentiate floors, sectors and wards for instance. Textiles constitute an important element in colour design. The individual design mirrored in the styling and colouring, both of the areas and of the textiles, becomes a calling card, with its own logo and recognition value. This element will therefore have a large part to play in the future – and this is set to happen against a background of growing competition between hospitals and care institutions and of advertising increasingly directed at patients.
“All-in-one” contract textiles: Flame retardant and antimicrobial
Particularly interesting materials for the application in the healthcare sector are furnishing fabrics which guarantee both the required safety standards as well as the demands for enhanced hygiene.
Textiles in public areas and in the contract sector have to satisfy the requirements of prevention and protection against fire, a fact now taken for granted by decision-makers in the selection of products. Flame retardant polyester textiles such as Trevira CS are now therefore a firm element in the furnishing concepts applied to hospitals.
Flame retardancy is, however, not the only important factor. More and more attention is being given to hygiene in the health sector. With their antimicrobial properties textiles like Trevira CS Bioactive reduce the growth of bacteria that are largely responsible for nosocomial infections in hospitals. To improve the wellbeing of patients and staff in hospitals and care facilities, there will from now on be increasing use of textiles that have as an additional function the capacity to make a significant reduction in the hazardous substances in the atmosphere. This also helps to make an appreciable reduction in unpleasant odours in the atmosphere. These multifunctional materials will be found in places where the requirements for safety and hygiene concur – not only in decorative fabrics, but also in articles like wheelchair cushions for instance.
For use in the contract sector textiles need in addition to be easy care, hard wearing, durable, and capable of industrial laundering. These are basic requirements that will continue for the future to constitute decisive criteria in the selection of textiles.
Interior sun protection: plain, pleated or crushed at will
Fabrics made from bicomponent yarns which allow to shape or stiffen the material according to the desired end-use, are an important element in modern contract furnishing. Trevira NSK (low melt component) is a modified polyester that is used to create hybrid yarns in combination with standard polyester, or also with flame retardant yarns. The low melt component causes a stiffening of the material, and in the process the proportion of the NSK element in the fabric controls the degree of stiffness. At the finishing stage this component causes the textile fabric to stiffen. It is not only possible to dye and print on the product, but also to pleat or crush it, while it can practically be shaped at will according to the desired aim.
Alongside the design, the technical possibilities and the textile look, there are important economic and ecological reasons for the use of hybrid yarns.
The textile material can be finished in a rational and energy-saving manner. The partial plasticization that occurs in the finishing stage can render a coating superfluous (e.g. acrylate). Products made of these yarns constitute a single-material substitute for technical textiles, since they enable end products in 100 % polyester that can be recycled.
With Trevira CS as the second component, the resultant hybrid yarn is permanently flame retardant and makes it therefore, suitable for the contract sector. Until now such special flame retardant yarns have largely figured in interior sun protection applications (sliding panels, roller and vertical blinds), as well as in room dividers and wall coverings. With the stiffening the article gains in stability and hangs better in flat panels than conventional materials.
Further end uses for flame retardant materials include soundproofing textiles and textile air ventilation systems (air ducts).