Compression Performance Optimization of Flexible Spacer Materials Based on the Synergy of Spacer Filament Spatial Distribution and Surface Structure

Spacer fabrics often face the challenge of simultaneously achieving high energy absorption and compression resilience. Existing enhancement methods also struggle to maintain surface flatness and flexibility. This study introduces an approach by employing a splitting method combined with different surface structures to arrange and distribute geometrically spacer filaments. Spacer fabrics with variations in spatial distribution and spacer filament morphology are prepared, and their structure and performance are investigated. Additionally, three types of samples are knitted with different filament diameters to explore the effects of diameter and distribution. Furthermore, the flexibility of the four selected samples was also analyzed. Results show that compared to that of the traditional spacer fabrics with a monolithic spacer layer, the energy absorption of the developed samples increases by up to 91%, and compression resilience improves by up to 21.6%, compared to foam, with these fabrics still outperforming. More importantly, by optimizing the structure, flexible samples (such as 2# and 4#) with both high energy absorption and good resilience were successfully knitted. Even after 100 compression cycles at 40%, it still shows good performance. Overall, this study provides an approach for the structural development of spacer fabrics.