New developments in elastic fibers

This paper reviews the developments of essential elastic fibers. The elastic fibers include extensible polymer fibers with low or high elasticity and reversibility which consists of the polyurethane elastic fiber, polyester-ether elastic fiber, polyester elastic fiber, olefin based elastic fiber like XLA, hard elastic fiber, bio-component fiber, and the shape memory fibers. The emphasis of the review is on the development and research process of polymer synthesis, production, characteristics, microstructure, and end-use in industry. It also draws some conclusions about the current problems and future directions.