Japan-based Toray Industries, has opened a new textile and apparel development base. This will strengthen Toray’s system to conduct consistent and comprehensive research from textiles to apparel as well as product developments. Besides expanding the functions of artificial weather room, new biomechanics evaluation and analysis equipment has been introduced.

The development base also has a textile library and a showroom for materials and products. The company has newly introduced a fabric appearance simulation system that reproduces a 3D structure of woven or knitted fabrics from fabric design databases and data on the physical properties of yarns, and a system that simulates wearing a garment by calculating clothing pressure, etc. based on fabric data and information on the human body and clothing.

An open laboratory has also been set up, which will promote joint research and development with apparel and textile firms and other business partners. The new artificial weather room can freely set the temperature between minus 30°C and 60°C, humidity between 20 per cent and 80 per cent, wind speeds between 0 and 30 meters per second, rainfalls between 0 and 200 mm per hour, and solar radiation between 0 and 1.16 kW, reproducing various weather conditions such as the cryogenic low-humidity environment in Antarctica or the Arctic and sudden downpours.