Smart Textiles & Nanotechnology

The recently-announced bankruptcy of Konarka illustrates just how tricky it is to bring groundbreaking new technologies to market – however smart they may be. The company is the latest in a list of companies who over the past decade have attempted the fusion of technologies – in this case mass manufactured solar cells with plastic films, but the marriage of electronics with textiles is just as applicable – and come unstuck at the lengthy lead times and endless financial resources required for successfully launching such products.

Reactive Surface Treatment (RST) technology provider Alexium announced today that it has been awarded a $200,000 contract by the US Air Force Research Laboratory to demonstrate its Cleanshell CB treatments for chemical and biological protection applications. The contract follows two other purchase orders by the US Army in the last twelve months and is expected to further validate RST technology for defence applications.

International Newsletters has announced that the speaker on nanotextiles has been confirmed for its TCL2012, International Conference on Textiles Coating & Laminating. Dr. Dirk Hegemann from the prestigious Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) will address the subject Nano Textiles: What can be expected from it?

Alexium announced this week that it has successfully demonstrated its Reactive Surface Technology (RST) treatments for functionalizing temperature-sensitive fibres such as high-performance polyolefins to add new properties such as antimicrobial, adhesion promotion, and flame retardancy.

With ten months still to go, Techtextil, the International Trade Fair for Technical Textiles and Nonwovens in Frankfurt am Main from 11 to 13 June 2013, is already almost fully booked. “Over 90% of the exhibition space occupied in 2011 has been reserved; 86% has actually been firmly booked. Never before have we had such a good result at such an early stage”, says Olaf Schmidt, Vice President Textiles & Textile Technologies.

All the signs are that Texprocess, Leading International Trade Fair for Processing Textile and Flexible Materials, in Frankfurt am Main from 10 to 13 June 2013, will be a success. With a year still to go before the doors open, over 50% of exhibition space has already been sold and the market leaders are on board.

Experts wishing to give a lecture at the symposiums during Techtextil in Frankfurt, the international trade fair for technical textiles and nonwovens being held from 11 to 13 June 2013, are invited by the organisers to submit their manuscripts. The deadline for receipt of the manuscripts is 31 October 2012.

The recent symposium on cosmétotextiles held at Interfilière Paris highlighted the growing success of these hybrid fabrics, as well as posing questions about their future. A cosmetic textile is defined by the French Office for the Standardisation of Textile and Clothing Industries as “a textile article that contains a substance or a preparation that is intended to be released sustainably on to the different superficial parts of the human body, especially the skin, and which claim particular properties such as cleansing, perfume, change of appearance, protection, maintenance in good condition, or correction of body odours.”

The recent Interfilière show in Paris confirmed the importance of the cosmetic textiles or cosmetotextiles market for producers and marketers of next-to-skin knitted fabrics. Interfilière organiser Eurovet, has published a seven page report on Cosmetotextiles (cosmetic textiles), which summarises a symposium held at the Paris show and which was jointly sponsored by Interfilière and La Federation de la Maille et de la Lingerie.

The high performance fabrics beloved of mountain sport enthusiasts are fast becoming a fixture on clothing racks. Their growing popularity is providing a boost for the Swiss textile industry. Growth in sales for the industry overall has been in the “double digits for the past few years,” explains Moritz Becher. He is editor at Outdoor Guide, Switzerland’s biggest alpine and outdoor sport magazine.