What is Polypropylene Fabric?

Polypropylene Fabric is a modern textile used for upholstery, industrial, and manufacturing applications. It’s soft, lightfast, and easy to clean because polypropylene has no active dye sites. It’s also super strong and can be cleaned with bleach; even with dark colors. This makes it ideal for a performance fabric without the use of stain protectants or chemical treatments.

What is Polypropylene made of?

 Polypropylene, also known as Olefin, is a synthetic thermoplastic polymer derived from oil and natural gas production. Up until the late 1950's, the gas propylene was a waste product of oil and natural gas facilities. It was not until Italian scientist, Giulio Natta, polymerized the gas propylene and made a commercially feasible plastic polypropylene. Polypropylene is then extruded through a shower head like device known as a spinneret. The spinneret creates the shape and length of threads. After the threads cool, they are spun together in various color and size combinations to make yarns. The polypropylene yarns are then woven into fabric.

Polypropylene Fabric Characteristics

As a fiber, polypropylene is strong, fade-resistant, and inherently stain resistant. This is because polypropylene has no active dye sites after it is synthesized. If you do a search for dying polypropylene, you will find that it is impossible to dye or change the color of the polypropylene after it has been extruded. Only when polypropylene is in a hot liquid form is it able to change colors with organic and inorganic pigments. This is awesome news! Polypropylene is inherently stain resistant due to its non-dye able characteristics. This makes it ideal for upholstery and textile applications.

Take upholstery fabric for example. Technically, the polypropylene will never get dirty. This is because of the inactive dye sites. If something spills or soils the fabric then the stain is sitting between the fibers. This makes it extremely easy to clean the whole cushion with household cleaners like bleach, without running the risk of changing the color of your sofa. It’s colorfast, resistant, cleanable fabric.

Where can I buy polypropylene fabric?

                You may be able to find polypropylene fabric online pretty much anywhere, but not all were created equal. Most polypropylene fabric is imported from China where quality control can become an issue. Not to mention if your order is out of stock, it could take more than 3 months to get it woven and shipped. That’s a long time to wait for reupholstering your furniture.

                Thankfully, Revolution Fabrics is a domestic manufacturer and supplier of polypropylene fabric. We do not import Polypropylene from China, India, or any foreign country. We find it necessary to have a domestic polypropylene supply chain due to that fact it takes less energy to transport and produce as well as provides jobs to Americans. Our yarns are sourced less than 300 miles from our mill in Kings Mountain, NC. If your order is ever out of stock, it only takes 3 weeks to weave and ship it to you. We also offer wholesale fabric options for interior designers, upholstery professionals, and fabric stores.

To purchase polypropylene fabric by the yard, visit our store at revolutionfabrics.com

 We offer a wide variety of indoor and outdoor fabric that resists stains; perfect for indoor furniture and outdoor furniture. Our yarns are solution-dyed making them visibly unstainable.  

To become a wholesaler of Revolution Performance Fabrics, sign up at https://revolutionfabrics.com/pages/wholesale-upholstery-fabric

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