Inga Gehrke / Vadim Tenner / Volker Lutz
The research field of smart textiles is currently witnessinga rapidly growing number of applicationsintegrating intelligent functions in textile substrates.With an increasing amount of new developed productprototypes, the number of materials used and that ofspecially designed production technologies are alsogrowing.This book is intended to provide an overview of materials,production technologies, and product conceptsto different groups concerned with smart textiles. Itwill help designers to understand the possibilities ofsmart textile production, so that they are enabled todesign this type of products. It will also help textileand electronics manufacturers to understand whichproduction technologies are suitable to meet certainproduct requirements.After an introduction to smart textiles and their marketrelevance, different material types for functionaltextiles are described along with their properties,application areas, and product examples. Specialattention is given to materials for the realization ofelectrical conductivity in textiles, as these are crucialfor the following overview on sensor and productiontechnologies. Next, textile-based sensors areintroduced. While numerous textile-based sensors,ranging from sensing fibers to coatings and three-dimensionalstructures, have been developed, theirspecific properties and usage are not clear. Bosowskiet al. have suggested a structure for a classified catalogueas knowledge basis to support the smart textileproduct development process. This chapter developsthe classification further and implements it in a catalogueto be used by practitioners from research andindustry when developing and designing textiles withsensing capabilities. The full catalogue is reported inthe appendix. The third part of the book starts by describingthe state of the art of research on productiontechnologies for the integration of conductive materialsinto textile substrates, which include weaving,knitting, embroidering, printing, without mentioningspecific products. Different variants of each technologyare presented. Additionally, associated technologiesto integrate electrical components in textile substratesare outlined. This part closes by reporting thecurrent state of research on automated productionsystems for electronics integration into textiles. In thelast part of the book, product and design conceptsfor smart textiles are evaluated along the example oftouchpads.
