Wool may provide protection & comfort to soldiers

07 Feb '12

5 min read

The U.S. wool industry exports approximately 65 percent of American-grown raw and semi-processed wool to overseas markets, and 10-15 percent is used by the domestic textile industry. The U.S. military usually consumes 20-25 percent; a slight increase will present significant business improvements to wool producers and manufacturers.

"These innovations help to develop products for now and the future, to adapt to the ever-changing needs of combat and tap innovation that is available commercially for developing totally new products," Samuelson said. "The U.S. military is an important and key customer for U.S. sheep producers. Having such a large customer in the U.S. helps to sustain our industry by building demand for our product."

"So much of the textile industry has been lost to foreign countries," Samuelson explained. "But, most importantly, foreign fabrics/wool decreases the United States' ability to respond locally and to use U.S. products and workers."

"Over the years in a systematic effort, we looked at various aspects of the concept," said Winterhalter, "first developing the camouflage recipe, then simple fiber blends and fabric constructions. Now we're looking at long-staple yarns, and wool shrink-resist treatments."

Spinning long-staple (four-inch) wool into worsted yarns with Nomex and Kevlar fibers from DuPont was done through NSRDEC and SVC for flame resistance and durability purposes.

"We believe we'll be able to make a fabric that is much stronger with the long-staple worsted yarns," Winterhalter said. "We've already demonstrated a 20 percent increase in yarn strength over the previous short-staple yarns."

Engineering products such as fire-resistant, or FR, fabrics is done to meet Soldiers' needs. Improving the protection and other performance characteristics of clothing is important, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Through these different parameters, we can engineer high-tech protective clothing made from environmentally friendly natural means," Winterhalter said. "We hope these fabrics will be used across the board for FR applications, just as the nylon/cotton blend has been the all-purpose combat uniform fabric."

SVC was awarded a three-year contract to develop FR fabrics for the future. SVC will take the aforementioned concepts and combine them. The company will look at wool and wool blends and survey FR fibers from all over the world, as well as gather the various services to find out what their FR needs are, to ultimately produce fabrics and garments that can be tested for effectiveness by service members.

"Wool does not melt or drip and has significant fire-resistant qualities, both of which can help protect Soldiers from IEDs," Samuelson said.

If these fabrics are ultimately successful and adopted, future products will be made entirely in this country with U.S.-grown sheep, as opposed to some exemptions that have been made inthe past. Wool is being revitalized to suit the needs of the Soldier, and this growing industry might be one of the ways in which the U.S. can continue to create jobs at home to serve those at home and abroad.

Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center

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