VAE polymers have an almost perfect profile to bind natural fibers. VAE is available in wet dispersion and in dry powder form. Depending on the production process the one or the other might be preferred. Dispersions are easier to mix homogenous with additives, like flame retardant additives, adhesion promotors, wettening agents, pigments, etc.
VAE dispersions:
- Water solluble or with internal water resistant crosslinker
- Easy to seperate by water, alkalic or mild solvent seperation processes
- Easy and higly compatible with additives like
- FR additives
- Wettening agents
- Coalescing agent, but often not needed
- Pigments
- Adhesion improvers
- Low CO2 footprint (Massbalance biobased versions available)
VAE Powder:
- Dried form from dispersion
- All the properties of VAE
- Except the crosslinkable grades
- Ter Polymer solutions (e.g. VinylAcetate-Ethylene-Acrylate)
- Thermoplastic properties
- Can be reactivated with moisture or heat
Several natural fibers could benefit from VAE binding technology
Natural fibres have often a good fit with VAE polymers, especially because of hydrophylic properties. Because of the thermoplastic properties, VAE even improves bioplastics performance with e.g. PLA and PBAT.

Fibers that already have found to be interesting are mentioned below
Coconut fibres
Fibres are collected from the coconut husk, a resource that is widely available. Coconut palms grow on 10 million of hectares of land throughout the tropics.
Bamboo
Bamboo fibre is a green natural fibre. It can replace the raw fibre materials, such as other organic fibres like:
- jute
- sisal
- hemp
These fibres are already often used in applications like s home textile, bedding, underwear and sportswear.
Camel Wool
Camel fibre is obtained from the two-humped Bactrian Camel often found in Eastern Europe and Asia. It is one of the most luxurious soft wool fibres and is collected from the soft underbelly of the camel during the warm summer months.
Cotton
Cotton is one of the most pure cellulose available, cotton is the world’s most widely used natural fibre. The main reasons for this are it’s softness and breathability, that’s really in line with VAE properties. Cotton absorbs moisture readily which makes cotton comfortable in hot weather.
Animal hair
Some natural fibers are made from natural animal hair it is already in use as layer over pocket springs. It it quite similar to Alpaca material which is one of the new breed of exotic fibres offering the very best in comfort, feel and performance. Alpaca offers unique properties which make it an ideal material for use in premium quality sleep solutions. Also other cattle hair can be used for these applications.