Xorel upholstery: colour in the fibre, moisture barrier in the backing
Xorel is a Carnegie textile, and it is a fibre before it is a fabric. Sugarcane is fermented to ethanol, the ethanol is converted to polyethylene, the polyethylene is drawn into a fibre, and the fibre is woven into cloth. Carnegie make the fibre and Carnegie weave it, which is what separates Xorel from the performance names that are applied to somebody else's cloth. It has been in development since 1981.
The colour is in the fibre, not on it
Most upholstery takes its colour and its performance from something applied to the surface: a dye, a coating, a topical finish. Xorel is coloured in the yarn before it is woven and carries no topical finish at all. Two things follow. The colour cannot wear off, because there is no layer to wear through to a different colour underneath. And the cloth tolerates cleaning that would strip a finished fabric, because there is no finish for a cleaner to strip.
The backing
On seating Xorel is supplied with X-Protect Sit, a complete moisture barrier between the cloth and the foam. It stops spills reaching the foam, and it stops bacterial and fungal strike-through in the other direction, which is the failure that takes a chair out of service in healthcare and aged care long before the fabric has worn. It is a different backing from the wallcovering version and the width differs with it, so a range specified for a wall is not the same product specified for a seat.
Cleaning and disinfection
Water, solvent and bleach cleanable to a 40 per cent bleach solution, and it takes hospital-grade disinfectants. That is the practical consequence of having no topical finish, and it is why the cloth turns up where the cleaning regime is fixed and severe rather than negotiable. Antimicrobial performance is verified to ASTM E2180.
Durability
Abrasion runs to a million double rubs on the Wyzenbeek scale, against a commercial minimum in the tens of thousands. The Martindale equivalent is carried alongside it, since double rubs is the American unit and Australian specifications are usually written in Martindale. Bio-based content across the line runs from a quarter to nine tenths, measured as new organic carbon by radiocarbon analysis.
Every Xorel range Carnegie make is available. If what you need is not shown, ask.
