The Swiss textile innovator HeiQ launches a new product HeiQ Fresh NKU in its durable odor control HeiQ Fresh Tech technology family at Techtextil in Frankfurt. Conventional odor control technologies mainly eliminate unpleasant body odor resulting from bacterial sweat metabolites. The newest product of the HeiQ Fresh Tech range, HeiQ Fresh NKU sequesters volatile malodors like the “plastic” smell of polyester or body hormones.
Everyone who knows HeiQ would have heard about its founding story – hiking through the Swiss Alps, smelly tech-shirts, unhappy girlfriends. Odor control on textiles was the founding technology of HeiQ back in 2005. And ever since then, the HeiQ Fresh Tech product family delivers market-leading odor control performance and up to 100 washing durability while not impairing breath ability and hand feel. HeiQ originally developed silver based technologies to prevent the odor generation on textiles by eliminating the source of malodors – hungry bacteria colonizing the fresh textile. For almost ten years, HeiQ’s first product has been toughly tested and used by over 50 major brand players of the active wear, outdoor clothing and underwear market – like Odlo, Mammut and New Balance. Over the years, HeiQ has added five further silver and non-silver based antimicrobial products to the highly versatile and effective HeiQ Fresh Tech family, aiming to provide a solution for bacteria derived bad odor on textiles. Now, the HeiQ Fresh Tech family has been expanded by the innovative volatile odor source sequestering product HeiQ Fresh NKU.
The working principle of superior HeiQ Fresh NKU odor control technology enables the elimination of manifold annoying volatile malodors on textiles, beyond body odor deriving from bacterial sweat metabolites: “plastic” smell of polyester generated by its monomeric components, or synthetic smell odors in new cars or exuded hormonal odor smell. HeiQ Fresh NKU rapidly sequesters these volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to its surface functionalized sorbent particles, more precisely engineered alumina-silica microparticles. Unpleasant volatile odor compounds are immobilized on the large surface of the particles in the textile and turned into non-volatile and therefore non-perceivable odor compounds. This unique new odor sequestering technology is particularly suitable for polyester fabrics, though generally applicable to all fiber substrates.
In harsh tests HeiQ Fresh NKU has shown a strong performance, and regenerated its effectiveness and sequestering potential even after repeated home laundry washings. Fabrics treated with HeiQ’s new odor sequestering technology are tested according to the internationally utilized deodorant efficacy test. With the help of a gas detector tube the reduction rate of VOC’s like e.g. ammonia or acetic acid gas is measured, indicating the sequestration potential of malodors by functionalized textiles.
