At last week's ANEX show in Seoul, South Korea, Yantai Huada Technology, based in Shandong, China, introduced its mass-produced nano-pigments which allow microfibres to be coloured via masterbatches prior to their extrusion.

The benefits, explained Melody Guo (pictured with colleague Roy Li) are both savings in raw materials and improved processing.

The applications for microfibres are very broad, both in nonwovens and conventional textiles, but their surface properties are very different to regular fibres and dye-fastness and deep dyeing properties are consequently problematic.