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Deconstructing
- One thing to remember is that this is essay is for laymen and to inform them of this idea of
smart fibrous materials.
Framework
-scene setting
-lay out an indirect comparison of
other techs’ accessibility for public
-definition of textile, smart textile
-comparison to fashion
-economical/commercial
-development(past to present)
-current framework
-prediction/possibilities(future)
- research participants
- public access/public interest
-manufacturing(problems)
Technical content
-heat transfers, materials, flexibility,
Electrical conduction, IoT, cloud,
physique interaction, compatibility
with electronics, medical uses,
military uses, washability,
- This topic will want me to give insights on where will the smart fibrous materials will
proceed to in the future( expansion of current sector, formation of a new technology) Giving
out the possibilities will be best through analysis of current technology, however 21 st century
would mean another 80 years of time. The possibility will be rather huge. This would mean
that article would need to cover only 40% of the the whole article on current technology.
Continuing from the 20th century, also dubbed as the Digital Age, society has been accessible to
technology for everyday use and thus became a consumer of science and technology. Research and
Development(R&D) is defined as “creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to
increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society and the use of this
stock of knowledge to devise new applications” by The Royal Society. And when this is coupled with
innovation,also defined by them to be “implementation of a new or significantly improved product
(good or service)”, there is a framework of translating extensive research into public goods. From
this framework, new products are conceived, building structures made stronger, cars self-drive, toxic
emissions reduced, life standards improved and all those brilliant things we see in our everyday life.
In the 21st century, formulating solutions through the IoT concept and textile science uses the idea of
a class of materials called ‘Smart Textiles’. Before we dive in further, we might want to
understanding how the whole paradigm is structured.
Smart Materials, as it is first coined in 1989, was set by the Japanese when they first discovered silk
with shape memory effect(or passive smart materials). Smart Materials are understood to behave in
accordance to the environmental factors or wearer’s specific physiological changes. Then there is
active smart materials. This materials will respond to a stimulus from the environment and will
‘decide’ to execute responses with the help of sensors and actuators(electronic device) integrated
into the fabrics. A simple example would be a sports
undergarment recording the changes of the wearer’s
body temperature.
Health industry was a large consumer in using the idea of e-textile and it still is. 6 years ago, two
professors at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign develop an electronic tattoo. As we place it on
our chest on the outside, it can sync with electrical signals that is generated from the pumping heart
as it contracts and relaxes. A few years later, the sports brand Under Armour developed a product
called Healthbox. A kit that consist of a weighing scale, a sports band and a chest strap which also
adopts the same idea as the elctronic tattoo i.e to detect bloodflow rate and communicates that
data to the phone via bluetooth. OMSignal, a canadian company, in 2015 launched a smart sports
bra. It has a small console sown on the bottom edge which is then connected to a wireless device
that will detect the changes like body temperature, heart rate,pace and your fatigue levels. In the
same year, Clim8 has been doing works on intelligent thermal technology that can intelligently tell
whether the we need heat or not. Through tiny thermosensors(heat sensor) in woven in the fabric,
the clothe is now engineered to regulate our skins’ temperature. This helps by reducing our sweat
production and thus increasing efficiency in performance. Prof. Yi (Henry) Li, says “this area of focus
is to improve the adaptation of the clothes to suit our body’s need to improve athlete’s
performance”. Our olympians might run more and more faster after this!
The medical industry also found benefits from e-textile. For example, in their stunning advert
promoting Healthbox, UA potrayed to us through clouded data, our physicians may as well gain
access to our records from their desk to monitor us daily. This is actually a game changer in medical
industry in this century. Numerous of E-textile devices is surging as group of device most connected
to data clouds. We can now rely mostly on the wearable technology. Thus, patients only need to
show up at the physicians desk occasionally for specific in-hospital assessment. The way medical
systems are run will now be more efficient. Not only that, Fieldtex Products, said “this will also be
the future of home healthcare and disease prevention which is more comfortable. The clothes will
be able to detect early signs of a disease from the physiological changes.” in a published article back
in 2018.
To further stabilize the fusion of IoT and textile, researchers are furthering their works
in conductive yarn. As the name suggest, conductive yarn is a material that is able to conduct
electrical current and signals through it. The diameter of this type of yarn is small enough that we
can spin in into fibers then weave it into textile products. Having an electroconductive yarn as a
fundamental material helps integrate microelectronics like supercapacitors. This is because there is
an interface between them and the textile. Generally, we all know metals are electrical conductors.
The brilliant idea here is converting a block of metals into yarns.This is a property of metal called
malleability, a trait that allows metal to be stretched into long,thin wire and yarns. However it is not
smart to make clothing from metals alone. It’s impractical anyway because metals like copper as it
will be uncomfortable, heavy and susceptible to wear. Braiding it with synthetic fibre allows them to
weave it into clothes as both material complements each other. This is a discovery in the early 21 st
century.
In 2013, Lee, H.M Choi and his research group found out that cotton
fibres with aluminium coatings are are very very good electrical
conductors. After undergoing a sophisticated coating technique
called “electroless metal plating”, the string of yarn has aluminium
coats deposited on it. This is a new generation of conductive yarn.
With better electrical conductivity, the data transmission in the
form electrical signals is more efficient throughout the e-textile
making the usage of these devices more user-friendly and efficient.
This is proof that different materials can be used as fabric to serve uncommon purposes thus leading
towards crazy,innovative ideas. The question then is “Where do we go from here?”. As stated
earlier, textile research is still active and evolving to better serve as solutions. Billy Hunter, an expert
in material science and author on Inside Composites said, the story is far from finished.