Warp knit fabrics are recently being used in technical applications. This paper critically reviews the recent research trends in warp knit spacer fabrics intended for various technical applications. When considering areas of applications such as sofas, seat covers, and cushions, warp knit spacer fabrics could offer a good substitute for polyurethane foams due to their advantages of combining compressive characteristics, air permeability, and thermoregulation arising out of their 3D structure. The compressive behavior of warp knit spacer fabrics has been analyzed under both static and dynamic conditions so as to determine their suitability for protective applications. The sound absorption behaviour of both warp and weft knitted fabrics have been studied. The study reveals that fabric surface structure and thickness, spacer yarn type and their connecting ways, fabric combinations and their arrangement methods have significant influence on the sound absorbability. The findings also show that good sound absorbability could be achieved by using knitted spacer fabrics when suitable fabric structures and combinations are used. Attempts have been made to study the relationships among the stab resistance and fabric density, thickness and the spacer structure. The results indicate that the thickness and the density of warp knitted spacer fabric and the compressive of the spacer layer structure are the main influencing factors on the stab resistance. The three layer composite structure of warp knitted spacer fabric was able to resist the penetration by stages during the penetration process and thereby achieved the objective of multiple protection through the knife self locking, energy dissipation and friction damping.
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