TEXTILES.ORG
Smart textile and e-textile solutions for indoor environments
September 1st, 2020
Technology and fabric advancements are fueling the development of smart textile and e-textile solutions for indoor environments. by Pamela Mills-Senn As the quest to add more functionality to interior spaces continues, smart fabrics and e-textiles are poised to make their own contributions, serving as platforms that can capture data, heat and cool, adjust lighting, entertain, […]
Market watch: The specialty fabrics industry responds to COVID-19
May 1st, 2020
By Elisa Bernick, Sammi Jones, Jill C. Lafferty, Galynn Nordstrom, Rebecca J. Post and Janet Preus The global response to the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented, with the textile industry playing a key role. Suppliers and end product manufacturers have pivoted at lightning speed to produce much-needed PPE for front-line medical workers. IFAI members are reaching […]
Are you ready for the new digital future?
May 1st, 2019
Industrial Revolution 4.0 is here. by Connie Huffa Reprinted with permission of Steiger Participations SA, Vionnaz, Switzerland. Humans were born to learn and innovate. By nature, we constantly define, measure, analyze, improve and control our environments. Whether we know it or not, by wanting the latest and greatest we are changing not only how we […]
New substrates for smart fabrics
January 1st, 2018
Manufacturers of smart fabrics are looking for new, novel textile substrates. A key takeaway from the Smart Fabrics Program and E-Textiles Workshop at the 2017 IFAI Expo was the symbiotic relationship between smart technologies and the development of suitable textile substrates to facilitate the desired function. While the fashion apparel business has become increasingly commodity-driven, […]
Narrow fabrics’ widening reach
December 1st, 2017
Corporate administrators tend to base management decisions on the Pareto Principle (80 percent of business comes from 20 percent of the clientele). Textile engineer Connie Huffa argues that can be a shortsighted way of thinking. “Opportunities lie in the 20 percent—the business we all would have turned down 10 to 20 years ago,” says the […]
E-textiles experts field questions at IFAI Expo
September 28th, 2017
A group of trainblazers in the world of e-textiles offered ideas and fielded questions in a casual setting on IFAI’s EXPO show floor yesterday. Many of the audience were experts themselves, so the discussion was, one might say, among colleagues in this segment. Standards for smart textiles was on the minds of many. One audience […]
Ooblecks and smart textiles
September 27th, 2017
What is an “oobleck”—and what does it have to do with smart textiles? According to children’s author Dr. Seuss, an oobleck is a mysterious sticky substance which threatened the kingdom in his 1949 book Bartholomew and the Oobleck. But as smart textile engineer, Connie Huffa of Fabdesigns told her audience at IFAI’s Advanced Textiles Conference […]