Electronic Textile Innovation: Smart Fabrics Are Also Bullet-Proof

 A digital knitting machine has successfully created a textile by combining pre-stretched yarn and polyurethane-coated copper fibers.This incredible innovation is credited  to a fabric cutting board (FCB) created by a research team at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University led by Ming Tao. The textile's electrical integrity is maintained because of the board's integration of copper wiring and circuitry, which has the capacity to flex, stretch, survive repeated washes and even be shot at!

Digital Knitting Machine: Source: TradeIndia.com

A digital knitting machine has successfully created a textile by combining pre-stretched yarn and polyurethane-coated copper fibers. This incredible innovation is credited to a fabric cutting board (FCB) created by a research team at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University led by Ming Tao. The textile's electrical integrity is maintained becasue of the board's integration of copper wiring and circuitry, which has the capacitiy to flex, stretch and survive repeated washes and even being shot at!

In the words of Lucy Dunne, a wearable tehnology expert at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul: "Washability  is a big plus for e-textile circuits, as is the durability of the embedded conductors. And as stretchable fabrics are increasingly common in everyday clothing, a conductor that isn't affected  by stretching will improve both comfort and aesthetics."

Computerized Textile: Source: Designboom.com

 Why are fabric circuit boards so special?

This certainly isn't the first electronic textile ever created, but it may well be the most durable. Woven with circuit board thread instead of the more conventional cotton, the resulting fabric carries a current and can communicate with others. Tests conducted by researchers determined that this innovative material can be stretched by 20% about a million times before any of the fibers weaken. With properties similar to a regular circuit board, currents can be carried and fabric can be utilized in multiple layers via the insulation of polyurethane, which surrounds the copper.

Closed Knit Conductor: Source:Hong Kong Polytechnic University.com

Uses of electronic fabric

Kevlar Vest: Source:En.Wikpedia.org

In addition to practical applications, electronic textiles can have life-saving advantages for both the military and law enforcement. The fabric can withstand the impact of bullets and continues to function. As such, this material could be integrated into kevlar vests made for the armed forces, as it can sense the force of a bullet and radio a message back to base. According once again to Lucy Dunne: "The ballistic application is pretty neat."

The average consumer and electronic fabric

This electronic textile has a far more reaching scope than any that has preceded it. Most consumers up to now have been happy with fitness trackers that detail heart rates and calories spent in the gym or at yoga class, but this washable fabric represents a major breakthrough in smart fabric design and composition. All of the insulated threads can carry a current, but they are also very stretchable due to their elastic content. This alone is a most unusual and unique quality for a wearable garment embedded with gadgets.

Conclusion

Wearable fabric circuits are innovative and potentially groundbreaking because they are so durable and as such represent new and heretofore unexplored applications. Wearable technology is constantly challenging conventional parameters in the world of fashion and experiencing its very own phenomenal age of discovery.

Closing universal thoughts on clothing:

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.~ Mark Twain