E-textiles can be electronic musical instruments

September 18th, 2024

Researchers Dr. Sophie Skach and Dr. Victor Shepardson have been doing research into fabrics, as part of their work in the Intelligent Instruments Lab, University of Iceland. Recently, they devised a set of smart fabrics that can produce sounds like musical instruments when people handle them, producing sounds comparable to ASMR scratches and water sloshes.  These fabrics can sense […]

Read More

ATA’s Emerging Textiles Conference begins Sept. 23

August 26th, 2024

The 2024 Advanced Textiles Association’s Emerging Technologies (ET) Conference starts Monday, Sept. 23, with a full day dedicated to emerging technologies education and networking. The second day includes classroom education in the morning, transitioning to Advanced Textiles Expo in the afternoon with education continuing on the show floor.  Among the topics to be featured in […]

Read More

ATA’s 2024 Emerging Technologies Conference at Expo

July 15th, 2024

The Advanced Textiles Association’s Emerging Technologies Conference Sept. 23-26, 2024, in Anaheim, Calif., will cover a range of topics important in today’s textile industry, and will feature three topic areas: artificial intelligence, sustainability and smart fabrics. The conference runs concurrently with ATA’s Expo at the Anaheim Convention Center.  Beginning at 8:00 a.m. Sept. 23, there […]

Read More

AFFOA announces new PAFF awards

June 10th, 2024

The Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) announced the selection of Loomia and Z-Polymers as the first two Product Accelerator for Functional Fabrics (PAFF) program awardees. This first-of-its-kind initiative is designed to enable organizations to leverage AFFOA’s capabilities and personnel, at no direct cost, to increase the speed to market of Advanced Functional Fabric (AFF) products […]

Read More

Taking on the wearables challenges

November 13th, 2023

AFFOA showed a newly developed material for smart products in their booth on the show floor at Advanced Textiles Expo in Orlando. It describes the material as a “flexible, roll-to-roll, inkjet manufacturable, RF metamaterial for wearables.” Photo: Janet Preus.  The Emerging Technologies Conference, part of the Advanced Textiles Association’s annual Expo, revealed the diversity in […]

Read More

ATA’s Emerging Technologies Conference begins Oct. 31

July 17th, 2023

The Advanced Textiles Association (ATA) presents its Emerging Technologies Conference beginning Oct. 31 at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Fla., and continuing through Nov. 2 as a part of Advanced Textiles Expo 2023. Presentations will begin at the opening lunch at 11:30 and continue throughout Expo 2023.  Scheduled presentations Jeremy Husic, senior staff engineer, […]

Read More

Scientists devise a sensing sweater for industrial robots

June 12th, 2023

Photo: Provided by the researchers, Carnegie Mellon University.  Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have designed a smart sweater for a robot that can immediately stop moving if it accidentally makes contact with an adjacent human worker. To keep from accidentally hurting their human coworkers, many industrial robots have sensors that detect physical contact with people or other […]

Read More

Smart Fabrics Summit calls for proposals

November 28th, 2022

The 2023 Smart Fabrics Summit is set to take place April 11–12, 2023, at North Carolina State University (NC State), Raleigh, N.C. The two-day event, sponsored by the Advanced Textiles Association and the Wilson College of Textiles, NC State, will feature educational sessions, product showcases, tours of the college’s facilities, and networking opportunities.  Industry participants […]

Read More

Progress through collaboration

April 25th, 2022

Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) presented and exhibited at the Smart Fabrics Summit, showing AFFOA advanced functional fiber preforms and advanced fibers demonstrating semiconductor devices (LED chips) embedded into fibers. The Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) continues to be in the forefront of new developments in technologies for advanced textile systems. Michelle Farrington, […]

Read More

Workforce, supply chain and manufacturing

April 11th, 2022

Printed antenna designs are optimized for improving efficiency of communication close to the body. The NEXT Research Lab at NC State works with researchers from Penn State University in the design of these antennas to support wearable electronics. This year’s Smart Fabrics Summit zeroed in on the industry’s most important issues, building a new in-person […]

Read More