Collapsible wash smart fabric developed successfully

According to the report of the Physicist Organization Network, scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have developed a new technology that allows electronic components such as sensors and conductive fibers to be spun into ordinary fabrics like fibers. This smart cloth, which is woven together with ordinary fabrics and electronic components, not only has the characteristics of the electronic components therein but also can be washed directly. In addition, since the core of its technology is to miniaturize and fibrillate electronic components, it is not necessary to upgrade the existing textile equipment, and large-scale commercial production can be achieved.

For a long time, scientists have tried to add electronic components to ordinary fabrics to make them have specific functions. The most common solution is to fix the electronic components on the cloth by sewing. The obvious drawback of "electronic clothing" made by this method is that it cannot be washed directly. In addition, the production can only be carried out basically in a manual manner, which is inconvenient for large-scale commercial production, resulting in high cost of such garments.

The technology developed by scientists of the ETH Zurich wearable computer laboratory is to attach a plastic fiber to miniaturized electronic components and connect a large number of miniaturized integrated circuits through a special material and structure. Together. Although textile materials contain a large number of electronic components, the smart fabric is not much different from ordinary fabrics in terms of appearance, and the clothes made therefrom can also be easily folded, which means that even smart clothes are Wearing in everyday life does not seem weird. In addition, because the electronic components in the fabric are all encapsulated in plastic, the clothes made therefrom can also be easily washed.

At present, the structure of textiles made from this technology is mainly band-shaped, but researchers hope that the final smart fabric can withstand arbitrary tailoring in order to better meet the needs of apparel design and production. Researchers have produced two kinds of samples through this technology: a table cloth that can display ambient temperature and humidity through its own LED (Light Emitting Diode), and a vest that can measure human body temperature at any time.

The director of the project, Kunigund Chiknik, said that smart fabric technology will have a very wide range of applications in the future: hybrid fabrics with heart rate monitoring sensors can help injured athletes safely perform restorative training, but also Providing first responders and firefighters with information on the wounded or the environment, and even integrating the monitor and keyboard on the clothes so that we can easily “wear” the computer. In the next step, they will focus on solving the power supply problem of smart fabrics and plan to further expand the space of smart fabrics to support larger sensor and bus structures.