Technical Textiles
How infrared technology is revolutionizing performance textiles
Humanity has long been able to conceptualize fitness, quantifying everything from strength and endurance to flexibility and agility. About 40 to 50 years ago, however, attention turned to the nutritional aspects of fitness, and healthy eating habits became integrated into the fitness-oriented lifestyle. Now, sleep has taken center stage as a vital component to both …
Intelligent fibers
I recently received a call from Yoel Fink, Ph.D., the founder of Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA) and a professor of Materials Science and Electrical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Fink is leading a course called Computing Fabrics – the first class on fabrics taught at MIT in the past century …
Student Spotlight: e-Textiles offer promising data to improve the comfort of prosthetic limbs
Jordan Tabor is a Ph.D. candidate within the Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry, and Science at NC State’s Wilson College of Textiles. Her background is in textile engineering, and she is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Fiber and Polymer Science, as well as a minor in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Jordan’s general research interests are …
Top technologies for the processing of high-performance fibers
The textile machinery branch of Germany’s VDMA, the Frankfurt-headquartered mechanical engineering industry association, held a series of webinars showcasing the technologies of some 30 of its members between June and December 2020. Understandably, many of them concerned the sudden demand for facemasks and PPE last year – in which meltblown polypropylene microfibers proved such a …
Bally Ribbon Mills brings smart textiles to commercialization
Bally Ribbon Mills (BRM), a leader in the design, development, and manufacture of highly specialized engineered woven fabrics, announces it is bringing to commercialization a variety of smart textile products – those that incorporate electronics or other actuation mechanisms into traditional fiber technology. Working with developers or fabricators making products for OEMs, BRM is using …