KarbonXtreme™ Technology (KX) is King of the Mountain’s™patented, carbon/Kevlar enhanced-wool fabric that's only available in our woven Omnitherm® and Omnilite® fabrics. It totally shreds the envelope of what everyone thought was possible when it comes to safety and comfort in extreme conditions. KarbonXtreme™ Technology is nail tough, stealth quiet, fire retardant and scent suppressant. Omnitherm® and Omnilite® with KX Technology draws vapor away from your body, turns it into heat and radiates it back at you– hot when the weather's cold and cool when it's hot.
 TECHNICAL WOOL
Omnitherm® & OmniLite® is woven in a special 5-ply configuration that shed water much like the fur on a wolf or shingles on a roof.
Omnitherm® & OmniLite® is a shrink-stabilized, weather-tight multi-ply woven wool fabric -- a long way of saying our process makes the wool more water and wind repellent, more durable, higher in loft, better at insulating and far more breathable.
Stabilizing a wool fabric for repeated trips through a washing machine is a difficult job. It requires additional time and expense, along with close attention to materials.
We spin our own 100% virgin wool yarn with an exclusive process using only fine grade top cut (not scratchy) wool with a high percentage of long fiber.
The 100% virgin wool is spun in an exclusive process that interlocks the short and long fibers into an exceptionally strong, durable, and stable woolen yarn.
Each color of Omnitherm® & OmniLite® is a yarn dyed separately with our own organic dyes which are absolutely UV neutral. That means they will reflect light exactly like the rest of the natural world so that you won't stand out in any wavelength of light. And of course our dyes are colorfast so the pattern won't fade away.
Omnitherm's® Camouflage pattern isn't printed onto the fabric -- it's woven in, on specialized fine index looms. They isolate one color yarn on top and hide the four additional strands underneath. We use the best looms of their kind in the world.
The fabric that comes off these looms is tight enough to earn a dry clean or hand wash label, but it's not ready for the Omnitherm® & OmniLite® label. We finish the fabric with an exclusive process that includes repeated shrinking. The end result is a fabric that is unmatched in field performance and ease of care.
MACHINE WASHABLE
Omnitherm® & OmniLite® is Machine Washable, but getting dirt out is only part of the story. Most people think "hassle" when they think about cleaning wool clothing. That's why we thought it worth the additional expense and time to manufacture a wool fabric tough enough for repeated trips through a washing machine. The standard Hand Wash or Dry Clean Label would have gotten us off the hook. We could have made it cheaper and left the shrinkage problem for you to solve.
But we thought our customers would appreciated the ability to take their mud-caked, blood-soaked clothes to their laundry room instead of the dry cleaner.
And we knew they'd just as likely dry their gear in a hot cook tent, and need to fit into it the next day.
So we chose a fine grade of wool, a more expensive process to spin our own, organic dyes, special looms, and an extended finishing process -- all cost more time and money, but ensure a superior product.
And then we made an important discovery. After Omnitherm® & OmniLite® took a few trips through a washing machine, the already tight weave got even tighter.
It blocked more wind and shed more water while it remained just as breathable. Each washing left the fabric revitalized, feeling softer and thicker.
When you own Omnitherm® & OmniLite®, getting dirty when you hunt is not a problem, it's an advantage. No hand washing big wads of wool or signing big checks at the dry cleaners. Just throw your gear in the washing machine, use cold water and the gentle cycle. After the final spin, give it a firm stretch while the fabric is still wet and then hang it up to dry.
 THERMAL AND VAPOR DYNAMICS
Mother nature did a remarkable job designing a wool fiber. Rather than ignore moisture like a synthetic fiber, wool uses moisture to keep you comfortable. Each wool fiber consists of an absorbent (hydrophilic) core surrounded by a nonabsorbent (hydrophobic) shell.
The moisture that comes off your skin is full of latent heat, and if you ventilate all the moisture away, the heat goes wit it; hence the constant layering shuffle with synthetic fabrics.
But with wool, the heat stays with you because the shell of the fiber separates the moisture and the air to avoid evaporation chill.
That's why wool keeps you warm even if you get wet. Wool works in open air like a wet suit works under water with one added feature: wool also uses stored moisture to cool you down when you heat up. The result is an amazing flywheel effect that adjusts naturally to keep you comfortable over a wide range of conditions.
 Latent Heat
Body Moisture transformed into vapor contains significant latent heat which wool can absorb. The vapor moves through the hydrophobic sheath of each wool fiber into the fiber's core. This keeps heat in the clothing envelope around the wearer withou evaporation heat loss.
Insulating systems that wick away all bio-vapor also remove the latent heat it contains, To compensate, they need additional insulating loft and more on-and-off layering adjustments to match ventilation to activity level.
Sensible Heat
Unlike synthetic fibers, wool fibers have the ability to conduct and hold heat. This "sensible heat" is stored in the wearer's insulating envelope. This provides a flywheel effect -- self-adjusting to reduce the amount of fiddling with the layers as weather and activity levels change.
Wool can also absorb radiant heat from the sun or from a fire without danger from flammability.
Dew Point Control
Low body heat output in extreme cold will often locate the dew point (point of 100% relative humidity) to the exterior region of the insulation layer and inside the exterior shell garment. Since Omnitherm® & OmniLite® absorbs body vapor and uses its latent heat, it doe not lose insulation ability when the dew point moves inside exterior shell layers with breathable membranes in extreme cold conditions. This is especially important in stationary or very low activity operations.
Insulating fabrics that ventilate all vapor are less effective when condensation of vapor occurs inside exterior shells. Moisture left in the insulation greatly increases the amount of insulating loft or bulk required to provide the equivalent insulation.
Insulating Coefficient (clo)
Insulating effectiveness in all clothing systems is provided by dry, trapped air.
The removal of body moisture into the wool fiber core keeps the trapped air in Omnitherm® & OmniLite® drier, greatly increasing the insulating coefficient of the fabric.
Even when soaked, Omnitherm® & OmniLite® maintains sufficient insulating ability to help avoid hypothermia.
|
Omnitherm® and Omnilite® are woven in a special 5-ply configuration that sheds water like shingles on a roof. These fabrics are a shrink-stabilized, weather-tight, multi-ply woven wool fabric -- a long way of saying our process makes the wool more water and wind repellent, more durable, higher in loft, better at insulating and far more breathable. They magnify your radiant heat and that of any other source. These fabrics have set the standard for natural fiber personal thermal solutions by generating low level infrared heat, and have remained at the top for 27 years. Now, having introduced our KarbonXtreme™ technology, they are even better. Their unique ability to transform the wet, warm water vapor that comes off your skin constantly and turn it into dry radiant heat is paramount. Our KarbonXtreme™ technology makes the fabrics more abrasion resistant and FR/ARC suppressive. Used for 27 years in every adverse weather condition on every continent, Omnitherm® and Omnilite® are the ULTIMATE high-tech, radiant, natural fiber fabrics. KX Technology™ -- like it came from sheep on steroids.