Wearable textiles get Department of Defense boost
September 15th, 2015
The smart/wearables textiles sector will get a boost with U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) funding. U. S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter has announced the creation of the National Manufacturing Innovation Institute for Hybrid Electronics. According to the U. S. DoD, “FlexTech Alliance,” a consortium of 96 companies, 41 universities, 14 state and local organizations, […]
Textile chemicals guide available
August 27th, 2015
With more customers wanting to know what is in their textile products, and chemical regulations for products becoming more stringent, ChemSec saw the need to provide a guide. The non-profit International Chemical Secretariat in Goteborg, Sweden, is offering the ChemSec Textile Guide to show companies how they can identify problematic chemicals in their production and […]
High tech and here to stay
August 7th, 2015
The growth of advanced technologies in medical and biomedical textiles cannot be denied. A recent report, “Medical Textiles Market: Global Trends, Demand and Forecast 2015-2019” released by www.reportsnreports.com, says that the global medical textiles market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.87 percent from 2015-2019. The report also says that the “medical textiles […]
Standards are not written in stone
May 11th, 2015
Nobody’s going to argue the importance of having standards for fire resistant and fire retardant textiles, but the issue of standards is anything but simple. Who decides? Who does the testing? Which fabrics for which uses must meet which standards? In fact the new California State Fire Marshall standards run many hundreds of pages. No […]
Using what we have, better
April 10th, 2015
We talk quite a bit on this website about the development of new fibers to build new textiles for specific performance requirements. Sometimes, however, a whole new textile is not required. Techniques for modifying the surfaces of textiles have become so sophisticated that many materials can be effectively enhanced to meet a specific need. Nanocoatings, […]
White House launches textile manufacturing initiatives
March 20th, 2015
President Obama has announced nearly $500 million in public-private investment to strengthen American manufacturing by investing in technology through a new, textiles-focused manufacturing institute competition led by the Department of Defense (DOD). The initiative will also sharpen the capabilities of small manufacturers through Manufacturing Extension Partnership competitions in twelve states, according to The White House. […]
Does she light up when she sees you?
March 17th, 2015
MIT researchers unveil “Social Textile” technology to take social messaging to a new level. Current technologies are good at connecting people at a distance, but less so at connecting them within the same environment, according to student researchers at MIT. “Social Textile,” a joint project of the MIT Media Lab's Fluid Interfaces and Tangible Media […]
Personal power source
March 6th, 2015
Technology currently under research pursues low-power energy harvesting from the human body—and textiles will have an important role to play. Digital/electronic advancement has changed our culture into one that requires more information with less hassle and more privacy. Wearable electronics are playing a key role in the Internet of Things (IoT) as a platform for […]