The temperature-regulating fibres made by Coolcore LLC, a company based in Portsmouth, NH, are the first product worldwide to be awarded the Hohenstein Quality Label ‘Innovative Technology - Cooling Power’.

With the award, the scientists at the internationally recognised and independent Hohenstein Institute have confirmed the cooling effect of the textiles, which are entirely chemical-free and do not use latent heat storage or phase change materials that exploit a change in phase (solid-liquid) to absorb and store heat.

Evaporative effect

The Coolcore textiles are said to exploit the body's own sweat, or added moisture, to achieve cooling. The sophisticated design means that the evaporation rate is regulated and, as a result, the cooling effect of ‘evaporative cooling’ is significantly higher than in conventional materials.

These effects were investigated and evaluated scientifically using the WATson Heat Loss Tester measurement device developed at the Hohenstein Institute. The heat dissipated from the skin under very different ambient conditions, from tropical heat to cool temperatures, as well as the heat loss caused by high wind speeds can be quantified using the device.

Quality control

Using WATson, textiles can be tested during the development phase and optimised at an early stage. The WATson Heat Loss Tester is based on the principles of the globally established Hohenstein sweating guarded hot-plate skin model, but with some technical differences. In the skin model, both the structure and the measurements as per standards DIN EN 31092 and ISO 11092 assume a high level of consistency.

WATson, on the other hand, reacts very quickly and sensitively to temperature phenomena. Hohenstein scientists are, therefore, able to look at the textiles' different fields of application and the associated climatic conditions in a very flexible way in their investigations. As a result, WATson is also suited to guaranteeing compliance with quality standards in the course of ongoing production monitoring.

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