Database of knowledge about medical, protective, sensorial and smart textiles

The projection of the advanced materials and smart textiles as dynamizers for PPE is clear, long, and worthy to keep in. Most of the applications are currently under pilot testing, need to be improved or are just being prototyped. But some of the already applied ones are just showing impressive performances and a high potential. 
Still, some risks and legislations need to be overcome and standards for these new products should be set.

The so-called smart and interactive textile industry has grown significantly during the past thirty years. With the introduction of novel fibers, new fabrics, and cutting-edge processing techniques, demand for smart textile materials and their applications is expected to increase. Additionally, washable, flexible, light-weight, and strong e-textiles are in high demand. These characteristics are influenced by the initial material's characteristics, the post-treatment, and the integration methods. 

An e-textile can be created by using various surface techniques to apply a
conductive component to the surface of a textile substrate or by creating a textile substrate from metals and naturally conductive polymers and using them to create fibers, yarns, and textiles. Additionally, it is possible to include conductive filament fibers or yarns onto traditional textile substrates both during and after the creation of the textile fabric by embroidering. The complete smart textile component can be printed in 3D, layer by layer, and the idea of 4D could be crucial in elevating the prestige of smart textiles to a new level.

By integrating these principles into the design, production, use, and disposal of smart textiles, the 3R concept promotes resource conservation, waste reduction, and environmental sustainability. It helps to maximize the value derived from these materials and minimize their impact on the environment.

Smart textiles often incorporate electronic components that require energy to operate. By conserving resources and implementing energy‐efficient designs, we can reduce energy consumption and reliance on fossil fuels, thereby lowering greenhouse gas emissions and combating climate change.

Conserving resources promotes sustainable innovation in the field of smart textiles. It encourages the development of eco‐friendly materials, efficient manufacturing processes and recycling technologies. By focusing on resource conservation, the industry can drive advancements that align with environmental stewardship and social responsibility.

Emphasizing resource conservation in smart textiles aligns with the principles of a circular economy. By reducing, reusing, and recycling materials, we can create a closed‐loop system where resources are used efficiently, waste is minimized, and valuable materials are continually circulated back into the production cycle.

Overall, conserving resources in smart textiles is essential for minimizing environmental impact, reducing waste, promoting sustainability, and driving economic and technological advancements in a responsible and efficient manner.

Washability is one of the key questions for e-textiles. Equally to what they are able to offer when the conductivity and devices are added in the product.
A simple wash can destroy the whole technology the product has been endorsed, so, the way the textile is confectioned and the way it is washed will play a relevant role in the success of its cleaning (that means no lose of properties). 
For that, a common standardisation is key. General rules would facilitate the development of this kind of products, as they would be developed following certain standards from the beginning and all producers would play with the same rules. 
The main limitation found up until now, is about the policy makers. Even the investigations done until the moment guide a significant part of the e-textiles producers and it can be said around a 60% follow the existing standards, the institutions that have competences to regulate these standards have not set them.  

By adopting these eco-centred design, smart and sensorial wearables and personal protective equipment may effectively reduce the environmental impact and mitigate the challenge of end-of-life disposal in the frame of a circular economy. In this chapter, main aspects of eco-design will be briefly explained. Specific key points focusing on eco-design for wearable sensors, batteries (and other energy storage devices) and actuators are addressed.

Advances in materials technology related to various mechanisms of energy harvesting and energy storage allow for the development of smart and sensorial textiles that embed energy-consuming devices. Attaching power sources to wearable by means of detachable equipment which are merely adhered to an otherwise conventional textile is rapidly giving away to the development of flexible, durable and effective energy harvesting and energy storage devices that are intrinsically embedded in or onto the textiles or even to yarns that can be knitted or woven.

The strain sensors are resistive, capacitive and piezoelectric. The strain sensors react by reducing or increasing the electrical resistance when the stimuli (strain, pressure, tensile forces, compressive forces, and torsion) are applied.

Advanced materials for pressure sensors

Textile pressure sensor development is challenging for researchers trying to generate scientific advances in biomedical monitoring (motion, pulse, gate and respiration) or robotics (artificial electronic skins for robots). The versatile embroidering of textile materials, technologies with polymers, advanced micro/nanostructured composites and digitalization (software and microelectronics) generate innovative wearable products. This chapter presents the main aspects concerning the materials used and technologies for resistive and capacitive sensors development.

History

Smart fabrics research represents a new model for developing innovative and creative solutions for the integration of electronics into atypical surroundings and it will lead to new scientific breakthroughs. The ability to combine textile and electronics fabrication technologies to functionalize large-area surfaces at rapid rates is a fundamental motivation for smart textiles research. In this chapter, we overview the history of smart textile development and introducing the main trends in this field. Finally, we provide our outlook for the field and a prediction for the future. 

History of smart textile development

This historical overview of smart textiles will provide the reader with a better understanding of the evolution. Textile innovation 27,000 years ago could be disputed as humanity's first material invention [1]. The knitting frame, invented by William Lee in 1589 [2], the flying shuttle, invented by John Kay in 1733, and the spinning jenny, invented by James Hargreaves about 1765 [3], were all major inventions that transformed society and laid the groundwork for the first industrial revolution. The usage of illuminated headbands in the ballet La Farandole in 1883 was one of the first examples of smart textiles [4]. Electronic textiles are divided into three generations depending on the integration of electronics in textiles: putting electronics or circuitry on a garment (first generation), functional fabrics like sensors and switches (second generation), and functional yarns (third generation) [5]. Figure 1 depicts the evolution of E-textiles as a timeline.

The basic principles of end-user centred design of smart sensors and actuators in PPE are outlined along with state-of-the-art workplace safety culture and risk management. The integration perspectives to ambient intelligence and the problems linked to complex and less developed production technologies are being highlighted.

Cluster paper in the boosting innovation field is not relevant but determinant. Clusters advice companies in their way to find out and exploit their capabilities, their strategic direction, and improve their weaknesses. Nowadays, these objectives are directly in line with the transformation of the sector, with the update of the textile industry from the XX century to the XXI century. Specifically, this improvement is about two key innovation pillars (among others) sustainability and digitalisation.
Clusters also approach these aims by actuating as an optimal ecosystem for companies’ interaction, facilitating symbiosis, exchange of experiences and confidence among them.
Some examples of these kinds of facilitating activities are the company collaboration or the simple participation -each one by their own- in several programs for the development of new products or the improvement of their companies and factories.
Also, some funding programs are targeted to several companies to find out a way to introduce to an existing product a smart application or directly to design a new product that comes from companies’ ideas.
In many cases, the result of these initiatives led by clusters end up producing new products and new applications that involve sensors, actuators and many other innovation forms to the market.
This paper attempts to explain the particular experience of the Catalan Cluster of Advance Textile Materials, AEI Tèxtils, and their companies’ innovation initiatives as an example to illustrate how a cluster boosts innovation and how it and its companies act as a facilitating ecosystem for co-design and co-develop innovation in the sector.

Co-design of smart sensors and integration into firefighters or dives PPEs includes the integration of different sensors containing microcontrollers, communication modules and adequate software applications for data processing to measure biomedical (pulse, temperature, pulse, oxygen level) or environmental parameters (oxygen level, depth, pressure, temperature, gas composition) to help workers in their activity and ensure that working conditions are safe. The integration of wearable smart sensors into textile products is mainly based on sensors' flexibility and miniaturization, while integrating some smart sensors for diving or fire protection consists of integrating some rigid components. 

Ethics related to smart textiles have a lot to tackle. Ethics, understood as the way how the new and smart applications that smart textiles provide, are a sensitive topic. And it is sensitive because most of those applications manage not only personal and private data of the person who is using the wearable, but also vital (physiological) data, especially when we are talking about smart protective equipment.
Furthermore, not only the data management is a key factor to consider in guaranteeing a safe use of the smart textiles, but also safety issues directly related with the health and/or potential health damages a wearable could generate on humans.
This paper attempts to explain how both data and physical care are crucial factors to take care about when we are using smart textiles products in order to ensure its safety in all its dimensions, not only when it is being used but also afterwards. Particularly, the paper will focus on the data protection regulation on the European Union and on some theory and practical cases about physical security and ethics.

Smart textiles are a new sector that seems to reach its maturity phase. So far, the sector has been oriented to the exploitation of advances in electronics and communication, failing however to intergrade them in a product that fulfils the requirements of a textile. The prototypes are becoming more “textile”, thanks to the development of new textile materials that are conductive and/or have inherent functions.

The world economy and market demands have been rapidly evolving over the past few years, and the demand for smart products is rising. Smart products with new facilities have been designed as a result of recent technical advances. However, producing smart products requires significant adjustments to product development procedures, which have seen numerous advances in recent years in terms of theory, methodologies, and approaches. Smart products can collect, process, and deliver the information. This chapter discusses the end-user requirements and perspective in selecting the smart products.

Combination of fabrics and sensing properties lead to the creation of what we call smart fabric sensors. They are sensitive to multiple physical and chemical stimuli such as changes in temperature, pressure, force, and electrical current, etc. Sensing elements can be incorporated into fabrics at any level depending on the structural fabric element being modified or sensitised. These smart fabric sensors can be considered as part of the more general term of smart fabric transducers [1].

We can divide the smart fabric transducers into three main categories which are sensors, actuators and batteries.
All these devices or components of a device that are made to some degree from textiles could find action in a variety of fields such as human health monitoring, sports, military, everyday life, food habits.