Smart Textiles

22nd Jul 2022

A smart textile technology with graphene nanotubes has been developed by OCSiAl and CoatYarn. High demand for interactive electronic textiles encouraged the Italian producer of technical-industrial yarns CoatYarn to expand its production line with an absolutely new product: thermoplastic polyurethane yarn enhanced with graphene nanotubes by OCSiAl.

20th Jul 2022

Lavender Tessmer, a doctoral candidate in MIT’s department of architecture, has developed a new active fibre and designed a process that — combined with specific knit textile architecture — uses heat to activate a mask to conform to an individual’s face. With standard equipment and the new customisation process, any manufacturer can create a customised ...

8th Jul 2022

Researchers at MIT have invented a form-fitting fabric that can recognise the wearer’s movements and even posture. The fabrication process, which employs digital-knitting technology, enables rapid prototyping, making it possible for the smart fabric to be manufactured on a large scale. This special textile could also have application in healthcare.

20th Jun 2022

Electronically conductive fibres are already in use in smart textiles, but in a recently published research ionically conductive fibres have proven to be of increasing interest. The ionofibres achieve higher flexibility, durability and match the type of conduction body uses. In future, they may be used for items like textile batteries, displays and...

9th Jun 2022

A Nanyang Technical University Singapore team has developed a stretchable, waterproof fabric that turns energy generated from body movements into electrical energy. A crucial component in the fabric is a polymer that, when pressed or squeezed, converts mechanical stress into electrical energy. Washing, folding and crumpling does not degrade its...

3rd Jun 2022

Researchers at Finland’s Aalto University’s departments of physics and design have developed a method of adhering solar cells to textiles that makes them resistant to machine-wash, and, at the same time, makes them less of an aesthetic problem. During the three-year ‘Sun-powered Textiles’ project, they also made the solar cell-infused textiles...

10th May 2022

Canadian researchers have woven ‘threads’ of Wi-Fi into fabric as a way of pushing boundaries to further understand how technology impacts lives. A textile Wi-Fi antenna has been created by weaving a conductive material directly into a tapestry fabric. It was conceived as a way to understand human relationship with home routers and the Internet.

25th Apr 2022

Researchers from Loughborough University in the UK and the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka have developed a scalable manufacturing technique to create wearable fabrics embedded with very small power generators known as ‘triboelectric nanogenerators’. The techniquecan turn common textile materials into energy-generating textiles using established...

20th Apr 2022

Canada’s Centennial College and its partners have received $4 million in multi-year funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to develop products for the global e-textile market, as well as to assist small and medium-sized enterprises in the transportation, food production, energy and advanced manufacturing sectors.