NEW FABRICS

There's a new fabric development in the UK that keeps you warm, and just warm enough, because it regulates its own temperature.

Gorix a new electro conductive fabric, not only heats the wearer but reacts to body heat to maintain a desired temperature without overheating. It was developed by Robert Rix and is produced as heater pads and temperature sensors by his company Gorix Ltd.

Rix, reached by phone at his \Rotherham, Yorkshire office, told us, "There is no metallic content in the fabric. The fabric itself is purely conductive. It can be cut and sewn in the usual manner". The heat is provided by low voltage batteries.

While he concedes that Gorix is "a polymeric material", he declined to discuss the actual fibre until "patents, which have been applied for world-wide, have been granted". It would appear that a carbon fibre, resulting from a baked fabric, is a key to the performance of Gorix. Rix said that the technology of forming the fabric before baking - spinning and weaving - is essential to its conductivity. He added that "we can control the temperature of the finished cloth to very fine tolerances".

He said that a key market for the new fabric is "winter sportswear". So far the company has used the fabric for self-heating undersuits for deep-sea divers (which use eight rechargeable 1.2volt Ni-Cad batteries), safe, heated clothing for expensive racehorses (called an Infra-Therm Therapeutic Horse Rug), and most recently, heater pads for protecting computers and video equipment on a current Antarctic expedition.

The Lear Corp. in the USA a supplier for Ford and GM is testing the fabric for car seats. In the future, Rix sees applications not only for active wear, such as gloves, ski boots and parkas, but also for infant beds, muscle wraps to be used by athletes before they participate in sporting events and for household rugs ("a new and better form of central heating").

He said that the woven textile can be laminated to or sandwiched between a wide variety of materials. Rix told us, "There is a strong possibility that our company will be organising a demonstration of Gorix in the U.S. next spring". If you can't wait, call him.