Last year, we published an interview with Dr. John Lettow, President & CEO of Vorbeck Materials Corp., whose company is conducting groundbreaking graphene work. He provided a good overview of graphene and its many uses, and many more still to be developed.

At TechTextil 2019, I had an opportunity to speak with Matt Reid, Director of Sales at Kyorene, the first company in the world to develop, produce, and commercialize a wide range of graphene oxide blended fibers and yarns for a variety of consumer and industrial textile applications. Kyorene is a subsidiary of QS Group, a multinational company known for manufacturing personal protective equipment (PPE) and renewable energy solar cells. QS Group has an annual turnover of more than €200 million.

After writing about graphene and following the news about this interesting material, I was actually able to see it in action at Kyorene’s booth…well, not really seeit, since it’s too small to be seen, but see yarns/threads that contain graphene and products ranging from gloves to activewear that have been created from yarns containing graphene. As a fiber artist that has worked with many, many different types of yarns and threads over the years, I can tell you that Kyorene’s process for embedding graphene in yarns does not affect the hand feel of the yarns or the products made from them. But it completely changes the dynamics of those yarns and textile products. Reid shared his thoughts with us on the current and future strategies of the business, and how he expects to see graphene impact the textiles market.