Lightweight and durable, Tyvek is breathable yet resistant to water, abrasion, bacterial penetration and ageing — making it ideal for a wide variety of applications across diverse industries.

One of the most commonly known applications is in construction where products in the family of building envelope solutions in New Zealand include Tyvek HomeWrap, DuPont Flashing Systems and Tyvek Supro. This Tyvek System of products is used to create more comfortable, energy-efficient buildings with fewer chances for moisture damage caused by water buildup.

DuPont is a global leader with Tyvek protective garments providing superior protection for workers in industrial, cleanroom applications and for first responders. Companies around the world use more than 200 million Tyvek garments per year. Tyvek garments have been used to support emergency response efforts across the globe, including the U.S. Deepwater Horizon oil spill cleanup, the Japan 2011 tsunami cleanup and Fukushima nuclear plant remediation, and for protection of workers in West Africa in addressing the Ebola crisis. 

Tyvek also is widely used to help protect patients in healthcare settings. Since its introduction to the medical device industry more than 45 years ago, Tyvek has been recognised as a standard of excellence for sterile device packaging. Tyvek earned this distinction because it provides an excellent microbial barrier, strength and protection for medical devices and pharmaceutical applications. Tyvek for medical packaging also helped enable the development of new sterilisation methods, such as low-temperature gas plasma sterilisation.

Other applications for Tyvek include: industrial packaging, active packaging and other specialty applications; cargo covers for pharmaceuticals and perishables; envelopes used by the U.S. Postal Service; and graphics as a substrate for tags, labels, banners, wristbands, maps and the creation of works of art and consumer products. 

The history of Tyvek began in the USA in 1955 when DuPont researcher Jim White made a chance discovery of a new fibre source. A program to develop the new material was set up and a year later DuPont submitted a patent proposal for strong yarn linear polyethylene. It took several more years for research teams to perfect the complex manufacturing process, which was based on the flash-spinning technology invented by DuPont scientist Herbert Blades. In 1965, the new engineered sheet structure was registered under the trademark name Tyvek, and in April 1967 DuPont began commercial production.