Research & Development, Education

In this two part feature, Debra Cobb takes a look at a new high-tech wave of interactive functional yarns and fabrics which are designed to deliver a whole range of benefits to wearers.

Alexium International Group has announced that its affiliate Alexium Government Solutions LLC (AGS) has submitted a Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) proposal to the US Army to develop novel multi-threat protection capabilities on military applications.

Market leaders in the sportswear sector will present specialist technologies at Texprocess, the leading international trade fair for processing textile and flexible materials from 10-13 June this year in Frankfurt, Germany, in co-location with Techtextil, the international trade fair for technical textiles and nonwovens. The following text, provided by the show’s organiser summarises some of the leading technologies which will be exhibited.

A new large scale plant for the production of polyester fibre and a new generation of nonwovens will be built in Russia this year by CJSC Kotovsky Nonwovens Plant, one of Russia’s largest producers of nonwovens.

Technical textiles will have a key role to play in the challenge of building with less and designing lighter, stronger and yet more efficient buildings.

Just a short time after UK start up, MMT Textiles Ltd announced on www.innovationintextiles.com that it had invented and patented a method of constructing bio-responsive fibres and yarns so that they react to humidity levels in a micro-climate, the London based company revealed this week that it is now close to bringing the technology to market.

According to researchers at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, wearable computers which can withstand washing are one step closer thanks to a technology which integrates electronic micro devices into yarns. The academics developed a prototype garment to demonstrate the technology, which they say could be used for medical and military purposes.

The Textile Institute has announced details of its latest intensive training short courses for the textiles industry. The Institute is a leading provider of short courses for the industry, drawing on over 100 years of textiles knowledge.

Cotton Club, a leading global manufacturer of cotton and hygiene products, with its own production facilities and trade offices in Russia, Turkey, China, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, plans to start construction of a large plant for the production of innovative textile products in Russian city of Dankov (Lipetsk region). Construction will start in the second quarter of 2013, according to an official representative of the company.

The Journal of Industrial Textiles has published online the following research paper: ‘Silver nanoparticles loaded thermosensitive cotton fabric for antibacterial application’.