Coated films and laminates for workwear and performance fabrics.
A textile finish can make a fabric easier to care for and still fail a buyer’s brief if it makes the material stiff or changes its appearance. For workwear, reusable covers and upholstery, the finish has to perform through the flexing, rubbing and cleaning the product sees in service. Jerry Stokes, Chief Commercial Officer of Nanize, is inviting mills, converters and brands to explore where PFAS-free surface chemistry could fit.
Stokes is a metallurgist by training and has brought materials-intensive products to market in batteries and renewable energy. In technical textiles, that work starts with identifying the layer a mill wants to coat and the properties a brand needs that layer to deliver at production scale.
A starting point in coated polymer films
Nanize develops polysilazane coatings and rapid curing processes. Its formulations are designed to form a durable surface with selected properties, such as easier cleaning or water repellency. Nanize publishes work on thermoplastic polyurethane, or TPU, film, including tests of how readily marks can be removed. A fabric laminated to an exposed polymer film is therefore a plausible first project for a textile partner.
Consider a reusable protective cover with an exposed TPU layer. A converter could compare the current laminate with a version using a coated film and measure how easily each can be wiped clean after soiling. Wipe-clean workwear panels and film-faced upholstery offer other development opportunities. In each case, testing the finished laminate would show how the coating behaves at folds, seams and areas that see repeated abrasion.
What direct fabric finishing would require
Applying a coating directly to woven or knitted material is a separate development project. A mill could examine whether a candidate finish stays uniform across the fabric and retains its effect after flexing, abrasion and laundering. The mill and brand would also need to agree on the acceptable feel, drape and air permeability for the finished article. Those requirements can vary widely between workwear and a cover that is designed to be wiped clean.
Water repellency, resistance to water penetration and stain release are distinct performance measures. AATCC TM22 offers a way to assess surface wetting on fabrics. ASTM D4966 covers Martindale abrasion testing for textile fabrics. The test program can combine relevant methods with application-specific care cycles, then compare results against the finish already in use. For a laminate, the partners can also evaluate bond integrity and appearance after repeated flexing.
Nanize’s rapid, low-temperature curing work is relevant to mills and film converters that need to control how much heat a material sees. A production trial can establish whether the full process, including application, curing and any later lamination, fits the substrate and the available line. A brand can use those results to decide whether an easier-care surface offers enough value to justify a new finish.
Textile development and investment inquiries
Nanize is looking for new textile clients, development partners and investors. Stokes welcomes conversations with textile mills, finishers, laminators, workwear brands and performance-material suppliers. A prospective partner can start with a representative swatch or film, its construction and the care or performance target. Investors can contact Nanize to discuss the opportunity to support application development and commercial scale-up.
Jerry Stokes, Chief Commercial Officer | js@nanize.com | www.nanize.com
Sources Nanize leadership · Nanize coating technology · EV Infrastructure Summit biography · AATCC water repellency test · ASTM textile abrasion test