Polyester Fabric Mills Directory

How Polyester Fabric Is Made

Polyester fabric mills first use raw materials such as polyethylene terephthalate and other polymers to create polymer resin, which is then melted and extruded into fibers. The fibers are then spun into yarn and woven or knitted into fabrics. Finishing processes such as dyeing, printing and coating may be used to give the fabric desired colors, textures and finishes. Polyester fabric mills may also be involved in the production of finished products such as clothing and bedding. That chain, polymer to chip to filament to yarn to cloth, is why the polyester trade is dominated by integrated groups that control several stages, and why the listings below so often describe a company as vertically integrated.

The fibre's character explains its market. Polyester is a synthetic fiber that is strong, lightweight, and resistant to shrinking, wrinkles, and fading. It takes disperse dyes to bright, wash-fast colours, holds pleats and texture set by heat, dries quickly because it absorbs little water, and blends readily with cotton, wool and elastane to lend them its easy care. Its weaknesses are the mirror of its strengths: it can feel clammy next to skin in flat constructions, it holds odour more than natural fibres, and it melts rather than chars near flame, all of which mill finishing, textured yarns, microfibres, wicking profiles and blended constructions, works to offset for apparel use.

Where Polyester Fabric Is Used

Apparel takes polyester everywhere durability and easy care lead: sportswear and performance outerwear, uniforms and workwear, dresses and blouses in filament crepes and satins, linings, and the polyester face of fleece and softshell systems described elsewhere in this fabric section. Home furnishings take it for curtains, upholstery, bedding and outdoor cushions that must shrug off sun and washing, and industry takes it for luggage, tents, awnings, umbrellas and coated fabrics, the applications several listings below name as their speciality. Read the listings as a map of that breadth: dobby and plain weavers for outerwear in Taiwan, water-jet loom houses for taffeta and taslan in Thailand, coated-fabric makers in China and Korea, and long-established filament weavers in Italy.

The listings below keep the descriptions the original directory published with each manufacturer, from Acotex and Asia Fiber to Everest Textile and Seong An, whose Startex and Sofsil brands the original entry describes in detail, including its yarn, weaving and dyeing facilities in series and its history since 1953. Two further names, Nuwa Textiles and Rainbow Jersey of the United Kingdom, link to their Fabric Mills by Name profiles in this directory. None has been removed: no listing was verified dead, and this directory's standing rule is to keep a listing when in doubt. Thank you for using the Apparel Search Fabric Mill Directory, and learn more about the benefits of polyester fabric for clothing elsewhere on Apparel Search.

Specifying Polyester Fabric

Specify polyester by construction first, woven or knitted, filament or spun, textured or flat, then by denier, weight, and finish, because the name covers everything from a silk-like charmeuse to a luggage oxford. For apparel, handle matters most: microfibre and textured-yarn polyester reads far softer than flat filament, and a wicking or brushed finish changes next-to-skin behaviour entirely, so judge a washed, worn sample rather than a loom-state swatch. Confirm heat-setting and dyeing quality on deep shades, check pill resistance on spun polyester, and for coated cloth confirm the coating system and its bond strength, since a coating that delaminates ends the fabric's life regardless of the base cloth.

Care is polyester's selling point and mostly takes care of itself: it washes warm, dries fast, resists wrinkles and keeps its colour through repeated laundering. Keep it from excessive iron heat, which glazes and can melt filament, wash dark colours inside out, and treat oily stains promptly since polyester attracts oil and holds it through a casual wash. In blends, follow the more delicate partner fibre on the label. For the trade buyer, the real care question is upstream: a mill that dyes, prints and coats in-house, as many listings below do, controls colour and finish consistency across repeat orders in a way a converter chain cannot always match.

Polyester Fabric Manufacturers Listed Here