DuPont to put Lycra to new use

09/01/2000

Mark A. DeSorbo

CARLSBAD, CA—Question: What do you get when you team a polyurethane glove manufacturer with an elastane maker?

Answer: The makings of what both companies believe will be the next generation of cleanroom gloves.

Wilshire Technologies Inc. and DuPont Lycra recently announced a collaboration to develop a disposable polyurethane polymer material for industrial cleanroom gloves.

The partnership is the latest development for Wilshire in an apparent refocusing effort. With the sale of its breast-implant business, Wilshire is tidying up by supplying disposable products for cleanrooms. It has already engineered polymer products, including Duraclean and Polyderm gloves, swabs and wipers. Wilshire, however, has agreed to sell its wiper and swab division to Foamex Asia.

"We have sold the contamination control division so our emphasis will be to move forward with the glove and bring it the market," says Kevin Mulvihill, Wilshire's president and chief executive officer. Mulvihill notes DuPont's trademarked Lycra as a tremendous resource, saying that although Wilshire had introduced Duraclean gloves within the last year, the new Lycra-laced glove will offer improved performance and comfort.

"We're still in the developmental stages of the glove. We have not finalized the agreement [with DuPont], and we do not have a glove to go to market at this point," he says. "We are anticipating that certain attributes will be superior to Latex, Nitrile and PVC gloves in cleanliness in use, durability, touch sensitivity and electrostatic dissipative properties."

Originally developed as a replacement for rubber, Lycra has the ability to stretch up to six times its original length and then snap back to its starting size with no loss to its spring, according to DuPont. It's never used alone, but is always combined with another fiber or fibers, both natural and man-made. As little as two percent is enough to improve a woven fabric's movement, drape, and ability to hold its shape.

Steve McCracken, DuPont Lycra's president, says the cleanroom glove market is a natural extension for the fiber business. "The properties of our polymer chemistries versus polyurethane and latex extend into other applications where a combination of strength and stretch are required," he says.