Smart textiles

Ink and film technology for the production of self-heating garments has been launched by DuPont Advanced Materials.

Just days after announcing a collaboration agreement with a global textiles and apparel manufacturer which will focus on the incorporation of graphene into fabrics, Versarien of Cheltenham, UK, is

German machine manufacturer Stoll and Canadian smart fabrics manufacturer Myant are working together to roll-out 500 three-dimensional (3D) knitting machines for the manufacture of electronic texti

Sensorskin is a thin and stretchable material with considerable potential to advance the effectiveness of smart fabrics, according to its developer.

Flexible and stretchable microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have been applied to a single-layer textile substrate by researchers at Binghamton University in New York, USA. 

Myant’s Skiin claimed the award for Best New Wearable Technology Device at the recent IDTechEx Show for emerging technologies held on 15–17 November 2017 in Santa Clara, Californi

Graphene Plus (G+) membranes and printed fabrics manufactured by Directa Plus of of Lomazzo have received international certification from Complife Italia, the independent toxicity testing organisa

Electric GT has announced a partnership with Bcomp to replace some traditional carbon fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) panels on its racing car with translucent natural fibre-reinforced alternatives

Teijin Frontier Co Ltd of Tokyo, Japan, has developed a polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT) fibre (Solotex Thermo) that it says demonstrates “excellent” thermal retention and insulation capabiliti

Washable, stretchable and breathable electronic circuits have been successfully incorporated into fabrics at the Cambridge Graphene Centre in the UK. 

Researchers at Stanford University in California, USA, have developed a reversible fabric that, without expending effort or energy, keeps skin at a comfortable temperature whatever the weather.

Rainbow Seed Fund, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on building technology companies from research carried out in the UK, is providing seed investment to Pireta, a smart textiles company

A smart fabric developed with funding from Google at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, USA, could make keys obsolete.

Developer of smart fabrics and wearable computing technologies Myant of Toronto, Canada, has committed around US$80 million (CAD$100 million) to a proposed advanced manufacturing supercluster in Ca

A flexible nonwoven supercapacitor that could power wearable devices has been developed by researchers in the USA and South Korea using a simple layer-by-layer nanocoating technique.

Microphones small enough to be almost invisible to the naked eye are being knitted into the fabric covering army helmets to reduce the risk of soldiers developing hearing injuries.

A technique for creating electrically heated fabrics based on a vapour deposition nanocoating process is being developed at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in he USA.

New students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, USA, have received a surprise gift on enrolling in 2017—a backpack that when scanned with a smartphone can display a pr

A solid-state flexible supercapacitor has been manufactured by using conductive graphene oxide ink to print electrodes onto cotton fabric by researchers at the University of Manchester in the UK.

A highly sensitive soft capacitive sensor made of silicone and fabric moves and flexes with the human body to unobtrusively and accurately detect movement.

Xenoma, a spin-out from the University of Tokyo in Japan, has just launched a pre-consumer version of its e-skin shirt on Kickstarter.

An ultra-thin energy harvesting system that could be incorporated into clothing is able to effectively power mobile telephones, fitness trackers and other personal devices via simple movements.

Intexar is the new brand from DuPont of Wilmington, Delaware, USA, for smart clothing technology based on stretchable electronic inks and films.

Researchers headed by Frank Clemens from the Laboratory for High-Performance Ceramics at Empa in Dübendorf, Switzerland, have developed a sensor made of piezoresistive fibres and have incorporated

Directa Plus Lomazzo has entered into a joint development agreement (JDA) with Lonate Pozzolo headquartered Alfredo Grassi SpA (both in Italy) for the incorporation of the former's G+ graphene into

The stress levels of aeroplane pilots are to be monitored using smart textiles as part of a major European research project involving Nottingham Trent University in the UK.

In the treatment of chronic wounds, nursing staff have to change a dressing regularly—not just for reasons of hygiene, but also to examine the wound, take swabs and clean it.

Smart-fabrics company Footfalls & Heartbeats (UK) is working with Germany-based KOB, a manufacturer of bandages and fabrics, to improve compression therapy using smart fibres.

A programmable backpack and a baseball cap with integrated light-emitting diode (LED) lighting are the first products to be launched by the US$300 million Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AF

Rokoko of Copenhagen, Denmark, has launched its Smartsuit Pro, which it claims will make motion capture, animation and three-dimensional (3D) effects more accessible. 

A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, USA, has designed a breathable workout suit with ventilating flaps that open and close in response to changes

ElderSens has launched a wearable sensors network technology to alert assisted care staff via an SMS (short message service) text message when incontinence products need to be changed.

Smart fabric specialist BeBop Sensors of Berkeley, California, USA is launching its Marcel Modular Data Gloves for companies in the virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) markets.

Amann & Soehne used the occasion of Techtextil (9–12 May 2017) in Frankfurt, Germany, to unveil several developments from its recently opened Innovation Lab.

Textile sensor technology company Footfalls & Heartbeats of Nottingham, UK, is working with bandage and fabric manufacturer KOB of Wolfstein, Germany, to improve compression therapy. 

Bainisha of Lokeren, Belgium, has partnered with Karachi, Pakistan-based denim manufacturer Kassim to introduce sensor-containing, body-monitoring Smart Jeans at the recent Denim Premiere Visio

During Techtextil, Amann & Soehne is to reveal several developments from its recently opened Innovation Lab.

Graphene manufacturer Directa Plus of Lomazzo, Italy, is leading a €1-million research project set-up to develop graphene membranes for enhancing the thermal and electrical performance of textiles

Five companies have joined forces to launch Hydro_Bot as a new technology for moisture management based on the electro-osmosis technique developed by Osmotex, a Swiss start-up company.

Directa Plus, based in  Lomazzo, Italy unveiled a new collection of ski jackets containing its graphene-based products at ISPO 2017 in Munich, Germany, on 5–8 February.  The Colmar Technol

The unveiling of a graphene dress that changes colour and design on the whim of the wearer received considerable attention from the UK’s national media at the end of January 2017.

The Technical Textiles Institute (ITA) at RWTH Aachen University in Germany has opened the Dream2Lab2Fab, dedicated to the development of smart textiles.

A German manufacturer of knitting machinery has collaborated with researchers in the UK to create a balaclava that warms the air being inhaled through it to reduce the risk of athletes, such as run

A sensor-laden bandage developed by a Saudi research team promises to reduce the burden on hospitals and enhance patient wellbeing by transforming how chronic wounds, such as diabetic foot ulcers,

Researchers in the USA and Australia have found a way to increase dramatically the efficiency of artificial muscles they had

A device that uses a textile to collect small amounts of perspiration from the wearer’s skin in order to monitor the level of glucose present has been developed by two researchers in the USA.

A system for monitoring the vital signs of astronauts has won Can$2.4 million funding from the Ottawa-based Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Imagine Intelligent Materials (IM) from Rosebery, Australia, and TenCate Geosynthetics, a manufacturer based in Nijverdal, The Netherlands, have signed a a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with th

A fabric that can harvest energy from both sunshine and motion simultaneously  has been developed by researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology (GT), paving the way for garments that could prov