As we have been exploring sustainability in a variety of realms, we began thinking about the textiles used on many of our furniture products. Knowing that we hadn’t dove too deep into material selection as a consultancy, we had a few questions: Are these fabrics recycled? Are they sustainable? Will they hold up to standards required for corporate office furniture? As we began looking into companies that offer these kinds of materials, we found a brand called Teknit.

Teknit is a producer of high quality fabrics used for office furniture and other high end goods. We were able to get a walkthrough of their facility to see their 3D Knitting machines and also understand more about what is so special about their fabrics.

Recycled Materials

Teknit uses a large variety of post-consumer fabrics to make new fibers for their knits. Some of these materials include recycled polyester, polyolefin, hytrel, grounding fabric, and nylon. It is important to note that the textile world is one that has gained a lot of headway in the reuse, reduce, recycle realm.

Zero Waste Method

Using 3D Knitting machines is revolutionary for a few reasons: the beautiful patterns that can be created using it, and the programmer can add more or less density to a knit file to give it more comfort or more stretch. Although these parts of 3D Knitting are great, there is one part to the process that makes it especially awesome. Zero waste! In the normal upholstery process, a pattern is drawn, cut, and the fabric left over is unusable and wasted. With the 3D Knitting process, there is no extra fabric being thrown away. Each thread is used in its specific place to create an entire product in one go, making this a greatly sustainable process.

Smart Textiles

Another exciting part to this process is that Teknit is able to create Smart Textiles. This is where things get really cool. With their cutting edge technology, Teknit is able to turn various materials into fibers that can then be knit directly into a product. Some examples of this include woven electronics (ex. for heated jackets), fiber-optics (ex. illuminated jackets, clothing, vehicle lighting, etc.), and grounding fiber for jobs that work specifically around electricity.

Unique Functionality

On top of the wide variety of materials that can be knit into products, there are also some very interesting and unique functions that can also be knit directly into products. One examples of this includes knitting pockets! This is interesting when it comes to cord management in furniture, or pockets in clothing. Another function is the wide variety of ways to fasten fabrics together. Oftentimes, these 3D knits have some sort of knit detail that allows for a tube to run through it and connect it together. It is also possible to knit ‘access holes’ into a piece of textile for framework to be inserted into later. Sometimes, fabric loops are knit in to create a fastening point for buttons as well.

We are thankful to Teknit for sharing details about their machines and capabilities in a personal tour. We see so many opportunities for this process to be used in future furniture, automotive, and consumer electronics projects. If you have more information on unique methods for integrated sustainable materials or technology into products, please leave a comment below.

Conversations: Teknit

(616) 914-1128 • 563 Grandville ave. Grand Rapids, MI 49503