Smart textiles other electronics

One further and final area of possible development will be in the smart textile field where there is a desire for fibres which may have a heat-sensing property which may then enable them to either alert the wearer (in protective clothing, for instance) or transfer electronic or other signals when embedded in a composite should a potential fire threat arise. This latter will be of increasing importance as the continued increase in use of textile and fibre-reinforced composites replaces conventional materials in the transport sectors, for example. 

D fabrics, panels, and preforms are being increasingly used in aerospace, medical, automotive, armored vehicles, marine, boat and shipbuilding, construction, wind energy, electronic textiles (E-textiles) and smart textiles wearables, and other industrial applications. 

Smart textiles for protection, security, communication and other electronics... 

However, smart textiles can be generally described as a complex system that consists of two basic components. These include textile structures that carry specific functions and their corresponding electronic parts. In this case, the stmcture, which has an additional function, can be a textile sensor or actuator that ensures interaction with the environment through a physical or chemical reaction. The data regarding this interaction is transferred and processed in order to bring the acquired information to an application. Therefore, electronics are often an inseparable part of such smart systems. Correspondingly, the morphology of a smart textile unit is crucial in the development of such systems. Usually a unit has a multi-layer structure, which incorporates sensors, circuits, the infrastructure career, the protective layer and other relevant compounds. 

Various textile structures can be employed to design a garment for embedded wearable technology. Fabric structures such as woven, knitted, braided, non-woven and other textile stmctures are possible, depending on the requirements of the system. Each type of system has its unique properties that can play a major role in the functionality of the system. Most of these types of textile structures are used for electronic textiles, such as embroidery and others. Nevertheless, these structures find uses in many smart textiles used today. 

The potential applications are several and e-textile technologies have a direct link with human body monitoring. Clothes are our own personal house (Van Langenhove, 2007) and there are no other devices continuously in contact with the human body like garments. hi this way, the combination of smart materials, wearable electronics, and sensors with fabrics opens the doors to many apphcations, especially in the clinical monitoring field. Textiles and clothes can be produced on fast and productive machinery at a reasonable cost, and the health and beauty industry is also taking advantage of these innovations. 

Chromic textiles responsive to other stimuli such as liquid or gas, electricity, pressure and electron beams have also been invented. These kinds of smart textiles have not been widely used in practice due to the application... 

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