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During the last years the traditional textile industry, that during the decades has favoured quality, has changed its strategy to support the innovation and the creation of new products and functionalities. This inversion of situation has allowed the consolidation of the emergence of a area like Smart Textiles, which represent the next generation of fibres, fabrics and articles [1] produced from them. They can be described as textile materials that think for themselves, for example through the incorporation of smart materials. Many intelligent textiles already feature in advanced types of clothing, principally for protection and safety and for added fashion or convenience.
Intelligent textiles provide ample evidence of the potential and enormous wealth of opportunities still to be realised in the textile industry in the fashion and clothing sector, as well as in the technical textiles sector. Moreover, these developments will be the result of active collaboration between people from a whole variety of backgrounds and disciplines: engineering, science, design, process development, and business and marketing.
A smart textile are materials and structures that sense and react to environmental conditions or stimuli, such as those from mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical, magnetic or other sources. According to functional activity smart textiles can be classified in two categories [2]: Passive Smart Textiles: The first generations of smart textiles, which can only sense the environmental conditions or stimulus, are called Passive Smart Textiles. Active Smart Textiles: The second generation has both actuators and sensors. The actuators act upon the detected signal either directly or from a central control unit. Active Smart textiles are shape memory, chameleonic, water-resistant and vapour permeable (hydrophilic/non porous), heat storage, thermo regulated, vapour absorbing, heat evolving fabric and electrically heated suits.
Smart Textiles
Clothing is one of the basic human needs. From primitive age, textile is used for clothing which was extended to household and domestic purpose with progressive civilization. Thousands of years ago textile is used in different forms such as sail cloth, tent, protective garments, ropes etc, basically these were all technical textiles and were mainly used for their technical performance.
Paraffin in textiles
Cuprous-zinc alloys are capable of a twoway activation and therefore can produce the reversible variation needed for protection from changeable weather conditions. They will also react to temperature changes brought about by variations in physical activity levels.
Nanotejidos
Chromic Materials
Other types of intelligent textiles are those which change their colour reversibly according to external environmental conditions, for this reason they are also called chameleon fibres [410]. Chromic materials are the general term referring to materials which radiate the colour, erase the colour or just change it because its induction caused by the external stimulus, as "chromic" is a suffix that means colour. Therefore we can classify chromic materials depending on the stimulus affecting them. Photochromic: external stimulus is light. Thermochromic: external stimulus is heat. Electrochromic: external stimulus is electricity.
Conductive materials
Photochromic
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Termochromic
Electrocromic
There are two strategies to create electrical or thermal conductive fabrics and two types of materials, the metals and the polymers. The same materials could be used for the both conductivity (thermal and electric), because the two processes are similar and results of an electronic agitation/conduction. The first strategy uses high wicking finishes (ink) with a high metallic content that still retains the comfort required for clothing. With the addition of nickel, copper, silver or carbon coatings of varying thickness, these finishes provide a versatile combination of physical and electrical properties for a variety of demanding applications [5 26]. The second strategy consists in the direct use of conductive yarns. The yarn could constitute metal such as silver, copper. From time, the conductive materials used in textile applications in electromagnetic shielding [6 28] and static [ 7 29] and others applications for conductive materials such as heated clothes for extreme winter conditions or heated diving suits to resist very cold water. In these cases an electrical energy source is needed in order that the material generates energy.
Luminescent Materials
The difference between chromic and luminescent materials is that the first one changes colour when the second one emits light thanks to a stimulus [18]. There are several types of luminescent effects. Photoluminescence: external stimulus is light. Opticoluminescence: light. conduction of
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and interactive textiles enable new functions and features that can enhance a garments performance and its wearers experience.
Market drivers
Yarns and Wicking finishes
Low cost fibre and textile manufacturing in Asia and India has caused significant cut backs in production in Western Europe and has pressed traditional textile companies to look to new technologies to add value in the design phase of a production. Such new technologies are immature and often promoted by start-up companies that are spin-offs from professional research. With limited funding to commercialise their products, the result is that some of the most exciting technologies have not yet been exploited to the full.
Market overview
Smart or Interactive Textiles is a new market segment resulting from the miniaturisation of electronics and the fall in price of components and manufacturing costs for both electronics and textiles. A simultaneous trend in the clothing industry toward manufacture of specific products for dedicated uses i.e. for running, skiing, golf and extreme sports has created a niche where smart
of the market, they are all agreed that the market for smart textiles is one of the most dynamic and fast growing sectors and offers huge potential for companies willing to take the plunge. Not surprisingly, most of the smart textile consumer products launched so far have been introduced onto the luxury end of the performance clothing market where development costs can be more readily absorbed by higher prices.
smart materials in the textile area is by using theirs capacities as sensors in electronic devices. On the manufacturing front, the textile industry in the past decade or so, has changed dramatically due to more attention on smart textiles. The western world today focuses extensively on research and applications of smart textiles compared to the classical ordinary clothing sectors. In the next twenty years; the smart fiber sector is expected to scale astronomical heights so much so that they would become indispensable to human beings.
Referencies Conclusions
A few years ago, smart textiles were presented as a non competitive market. After scientific efforts and development phases, nowadays SFIT are an implanted customer interest and are presented as the future of the textile industry. A lot of commercial products are available and, as it was presented during this article; a lot of scientist is developing new solutions, ideas and concrete products. Some approximations announce a market of 1 billion dollars by 2010 which certainly explains the current passion for these news topics. Majority of smart materials are used in textile industry for their intrinsic properties. Another way to profit from