A piece of cloth made from microfiber can feel as soft as cashmere. Remember those little pieces of cloth that used to come with compact discs with instructions to clean the CD in a clockwise motion? The tiny piece of cloth you use to wipe your camera lens down before you cap it because it won’t scratch or leave any lint on the surface? That’s microfiber, the fiber that is touted to be “finer than silk.”
Microfiber is a synthetic, durable fiber that is used in almost all industries. Made from polyester and polyamide, it is finer than other fiber types when compared through the denier system. This international system measures fiber size of commonly used fibers like flax, wool, silk and cotton, based on an ancient way of rating the caliber of silk. Microfiber, as the name suggests, is finer than any other with a denier rating of 0.1. Silk has a rating of 4.5 g/d. If we will speak in semi-technical terms, microfiber is thinner than human hair.
Because of its composition, items created with microfiber are highly absorbent, lightweight and have varied and extreme uses. Fabrics made with this material tend to repel water. Polyester is already naturally resistant to water and the wedge shaped fiber allows water to bead on the surface. Naturally, many sportswear and outdoor clothing companies use this fabric to take advantage of its properties. The windbreaker that you wear everyday might just be made of these tiny fibers. A jersey made from microfiber leeches sweat away from your body, which makes your football game or basketball game a little bit more comfortable.
Because microfiber absorbs dirt into its structure and traps it within like a mini-vacuum, it is an extremely easy to use cleaning tool. It creates a positive charge that actually attracts dirt to it. It also helps to remove bacteria and allergens from the air. The structure allows it to cling to surfaces, so you clean and polish at the same time. This makes it a great time saver for people who like their surroundings clean but have no time to dust, wax or polish. These are just some of the many ways microfiber is used everyday.
Before microfiber was invented, humans had long used natural materials like cotton, wool and silk. These materials came from plants or animals that we could easily access. The demand for man-made fibers came about for different reasons. We needed sturdier materials that could stand up not only to the test of time, but for various projects. A good example is Kevlar, which is now mainly used for military purposes but was once just used to make strong rope. One important man made fiber that eventually allowed for the evolution of microfiber was nylon. Nylon was the first fiber that wasn’t made from plants which opened up an entirely different avenue of sources for synthetic fibers.
Microfiber first appeared on the fabric scene in 1986 when a Japanese scientist, Dr Miyoshi Okamoto, invented a fiber that would come to be known as Ultrasuede. Ultrasuede is widely believed to be the first ultra-microfiber. Since then, it is continually surprised us with the variety of ways it can be used.
Tags: composition, history of microfiber, made of, what is microfiber
