What signifies a smart textile and how can we build a centre of excellence and an outstanding environment for creating the future of textiles?
- Undershirts with integrated textile sensors, stretch sensors in seatbelts, temperature regulating sportswear and textile produced blood vessels.
- Curtains heating up your house –after a warm sunny day.
- Climate control and energy saving screens, textile reinforcement in concrete, smart filters and sound absorbing textiles interacting with the surroundings.
These are just a few examples of what we will see in the future – these are the next generation of textile products. These are smart textiles.
Textile is in the frontline of design development and is creating new trends. There is a great and increasing demand for new textile products and the new generation has different demands on techniques and design.
Tomorrow the technique is self-evident and this applies on the textile materials as well as the textile processes. The development of the next generation of textiles leads to completely new functions due to closer cooperation and networking between researchers from different disciplines. When technicians and designers meet and interact throughout the entire process of development synergies result in new possibilities. With e.g. nanotechnology, phase change fibres, sensor technologies, we create unlimited new textile solutions and new products of tomorrow.
Smart Textiles is a new and prioritized research area in the Sjuhärad region. In Borås and Western Sweden we are coordinating and organizing a dynamic innovation system, Smart Textiles, in order to create an inclusive environment for the development of the next generation’s textile solutions. The core activities of Smart Textiles emerge from the Swedish School of Textiles located in the city of Borås. Smart Textiles is a collaboration between different parties; academic, social and industrial. Researchers and students from universities and colleges from all over the world work with different projects in collaboration with research institutes as well as with the industry in a wide range of different international and national networks. Combining the basic research with company/consumer driven research is the main theme in our work.
