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Electroluminescence (EL) is the property of a semiconductor material pertaining to emitting light in response to an electrical current or a strong electric field. The purpose of this paper is to develop a flexible and lightweight EL device. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was conducted to observe the thermal degradation behavior of NinjaFlex. Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonic acid)—PEDOT:PSS—with ethylene glycol (EG) was coated onto polyester fabric where NinjaFlex was placed onto the coated fabric using three-dimensional (3D) printing and phosphor paste, and BendLay filaments were subsequently coated via 3D printing. Adhesion strength and flexibility of the 3D-printed NinjaFlex on textile fabrics were investigated. The TGA results of the NinjaFlex depict no weight loss up to 150°C and that the NinjaFlex was highly conductive with a surface resistance value of 8.5 ohms/sq.; the coated fabric exhibited a uniform surface appearance as measured and observed by using four-probe measurements and scanning electron microscopy, respectively, at 60% PEDOT:PSS. The results of the adhesion test showed that peel strengths of 4160 N/m and 3840 N/m were recorded for polyester and cotton specimens, respectively. No weight loss was recorded following three washing cycles of NinjaFlex. The bending lengths were increased by only a factor of 0.082 and 0.577 for polyester and cotton samples at 0.1-mm thickness, respectively; this remains sufficiently flexible to be integrated into textiles. The prototype device emitted light with a 12-V alternating current power supply.

This paper investigates the effects of warp yarns ratios on the ballistic performances of three-dimensional (3D) warp interlock p-aramid fabrics. Four 3D warp interlock variants with different binding and stuffer warp yarns ratios were designed and developed. Except for warp yarns ratios, similar fabric parameters and manufacturing conditions were considered. Two-dimensional (2D) woven fabric having similar material characteristics and recommended for female seamless soft body armor are also considered for comparisons. Five ballistic panels, one from 2D plain weave fabric and the rest four from the other 3D warp interlock variants were prepared in a non-angled layer alignment and non-stitched but bust-shaped molded form. The ballistic test is carried out according to NIJ (National Institute of Justice) standard-level IIIA. Back Face Signature (BFS) was then modeled and measured to compute both trauma and panels’ energy-absorbing capability. The result showed significant ballistic improvement in the 3D warp interlock variant with optimum warp yarns ratios over traditional 2D plain weave fabrics. 3D warp interlock fabric panel made with 66.6% binding and 33.3% stuffer warp yarn ratio revealed both lower BFS depth and higher energy absorbing capacity (%) than other panels made of 2D plain weave and 3D warp interlock fabric variants.

Wearable E-textile systems should be comfortable so that highest efficiency of their functionality can be achieved. The development of electronic textiles (functional textiles) as a wearable technology for various applications has intensified the use of flexible wearable functional textiles instead of wearable electronics. However, the wearable functional textiles still bring comfort complications during wear. The purpose of this review paper is to sightsee and recap recent developments in the field of functional textile comfort evaluation systems. For textile-based materials which have close contact to the skin, clothing comfort is a fundamental necessity. In this paper, the effects of functional finishing on the comfort of the textile material were reviewed. A brief review of clothing comfort evaluations for textile fabrics based on subjective and objective techniques was conducted. The reasons behind the necessity for sensory evaluation for smart and functional clothing have been presented. The existing works of literature on comfort evaluation techniques applied to functional fabrics have been reviewed. Statistical and soft computing/artificial intelligence presentations from selected fabric comfort studies were also reviewed. Challenges of smart textiles and its future highlighted. Some experimental results were presented to support the review. From the aforementioned reviews, it is noted that the electronics clothing comfort evaluation of smart/functional fabrics needs more focus.

Conductive elastic fabrics are desirable in wearable electronics and related applications. Highly elastic conductive polyamide/lycra knitted fabric was prepared using intrinsically conductive polymer poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) blended with polyelectrolyte poly (styrene sulfonate) (PSS) using easily scalable coating and immersion methods. The effects of these two methods of treatments on uniformity, electromechanical property, stretchability, and durability were investigated. Different grades of waterborne polyurethanes (PU) were employed in different concentrations to improve the coating and adhesion of the PEDOT:PSS on the fabric. The immersion method gave better uniform treatment, high conductivity, and durability against stretching and cyclic tension than the coating process. The surface resistance increased from ~ 1.7 and ~ 6.4 Ω/square at 0% PU to ~ 3.7 and ~ 12.6 Ω/square at 50% PU for immersion and coating methods, respectively. The treatment methods as well as the acidic PEDOT:PSS did not affect the mechanical properties of the fabric and the fabric showed high strain at break of ~ 650% and remained conductive until break. Finally, to assess the practical applicability of the treated fabric for wearable e-textiles, the change in surface resistance was assessed by cyclically stretching 10 times at 100% strain and washing in a domestic laundry for 10 cycles. The resistance increased only by a small amount when samples were stretched cyclically at 100% strain, and the samples showed good durability against washing.

Textile’s primary hand (HV) and total hand values (THV) are very important parameters and are used to identify the quality of clothing comfort. This paper aims to predict the HV and THV of the fabrics finished with functional polymers by applying Kawabata’s translation equations. The mechanical properties were achieved using Kawabata’s fabric evaluation system (KES-F) and the inference/interpretation was drawn. Then, HV and THV predictions were performed by applying Kawabata’s translation equations of the KN-101 and KN-301 series. The KES-F result confirmed that it is possible to observe the operative finishing effect on the mechanical properties of fabrics. The prediction results show that the total quality comfort of the functional fabrics could able be estimated by the equation developed by Kawabata; the calculated errors (~0.66) were within the range of the standard deviations (~0.78) of the samples between the predicted and ranked THV. The experimental and the calculated primary hand values showed strong correlation coefficients up to ~0.98 which is significant at 0.001 confidence levels. As actual functional fabrics with various surface properties were provided to estimate their tactile comfort via the equations, the result verified that the equation is reliable for the tactile comfort evaluation and grading.

The online clothing industry has gained popularity among consumers, and the perception of materials and equipment plays a crucial role in their purchasing decisions. Therefore, accurately representing their appearance in real-time is essential. This study aimed to subjectively evaluate 20 protective textile materials by translating their tactile characteristics into virtual prototypes. This was accomplished by scanning physical materials with an x-Tex scanner and processing them in KeyShot rendering software. Consequently, four scenarios featuring digital materials were created: S1-image, S2-video animation, S3-3D object, and S4-physical materials. Digital visual subjective evaluations were conducted for sensory analysis. Participants were asked to assess four visual and seven tactile characteristics using a seven-point Likert scale. Statistical analysis was employed to evaluate the sensory data collected through subjective testing. The results indicated that agreement values for the four scenarios ranged from 1.25 to 7.0, as illustrated in boxplot diagrams representing the subjects' agreement with the perceptual attributes. Pairwise comparisons of the S4-S1, S4-S2, and S4-S3 scenarios concerning the difference in means revealed that attributes FR with values of 0.045 (S1), RM with values of 0.063 (S1), CR with values of 0.028 (S1), CR with values of 0.039 (S2), and 0.052 (S3) are closely aligned with the actual values, as the values obtained from these scenarios closely approximate 0. In contrast, the values of the remaining attributes were close to 1, indicating the difficulty of translating these attributes into digital format and achieving accurate perception. Assessing textile material properties through digital images remains a challenging task that requires in-depth subjective analysis.

Functional finishing brings an alteration on the mechanical and surface properties of textile materials and henceforth influences the tactile properties. In this work, Kawabata evaluation systems (KES) for fabrics were utilized to notice the changes in the tactile properties of fabrics resulting from different finishing types such as inkjet printing, screen printing, and coating. The effects of functional finishing on the fabric’s tactile property were inconsistent with reference to the course of decrease or increase being dependent on the types of finishes. The findings showed that KES can be employed as a promising tool to sort out the suitable functional finishing types in terms of tactile properties. Amongst the implemented finishing types, inkjet printing offered superior tactile properties with respect to tensile energy (softness), shear rigidity, compressional softness, bending stiffness (drapability), and surface properties. The KES results confirmed that low-stress mechanical properties are strongly associated with the tactile property and might assist as a quality profile data source for guaranteeing the production and development of a virtuous quality product. The result encourages further utilization of the KES for functional fabric tactile property evaluation.

Significant efforts have been made so far to improve the overall performance of female soft body armor. However, still designing female soft body armor which accommodates the bust area for different women morphological differences with good comfort, fitness, and better ballistic protection is in its great demand. This research paper presents an efficient reverse engineering approach (2D-3D-2D pattern generation) for developing appropriate 2D patterns from 3D female adaptive virtual mannequin for female soft body armor seamless front panel. The method was mainly used to attain the required bust volume in the pattern by eliminating the involvement of darts and another design element. Before the process, using computer-aided design (CAD), parameterization has been applied to develop a female model with an adaptive bust from a scanned body. The method starts with identifying the different strategic anthropometric points on the front body side contours of adaptive mannequin using specific 90B size bust cup. Based on these points, delimiting of the outer contour of the pattern has been done. Later, horizontal (weft) and vertical (warp) projection grids in front of the virtual mannequin were marked to generate block pattern using curve measurement from the body couture, while during projection, an accurate measurement using precise projection system and bust points has been considered. Finally, the material deformation has been also analyzed using classical 3D-to-2D flattened pattern. The result shows that the new flattened pattern reveals better shape to accommodate the deformation with low distortion throughout the fabric surface while flattening. This will later greatly help to keep similar fabric distribution throughout the panel and give better ballistic protection, fit-ensured, and good comfort for the wearer.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method for assessing the environmental impact of a product, activity, or system across all the stages of its life cycle. LCA can identify the activities with a major impact on the environment throughout the life cycle of a product. To analyze the environmental implications of footwear, the LCA was applied to a pair of shoes designed for professional use. In this paper, the impact of a single pair of shoes was studied. Every year, footwear production worldwide is over 22 billion pairs, which has a significant impact on the environment. In this case study, the “cradle-to-grave” approach was used, which refers to all the activities involved in the life cycle of a footwear product, starting from raw material extraction, manufacturing, use, maintenance, and, in the end, disposal. The LCA was conducted using the SimaPro software. The environmental impact assessment of the analyzed shoe needed the acquisition of two crucial datasets. Background inventory data were sourced from the Ecoinvent database (version 3.3). The impact was quantified using the Global Warming Potential (GWP) metric, which calculates the contribution of emissions to global warming over a 100-year time limit according to the established values provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The impact of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions was measured in relative carbon dioxide equivalents (kg CO2eq) to facilitate a standardized comparison. The results show that the total carbon footprint for a pair of safety boots is 18.65 kg of CO2eq with the “component manufacture” stage as a major contributor accumulating almost 80%.

Research approaches on the use of ecotechnologies like ozone assisted processes for the decolorization of textiles are being explored as against the conventional alkaline reductive process for the color stripping of the cotton textiles. The evaluation of these ecotechnologies must be performed to assess the environmental impacts. Partial “gate to gate” Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was implemented to study the ozone based decolorization process of the reactive dyed cotton textiles. Experiments were performed to determine input and output data flows for decolorization treatment of reactive dyed cotton textile using the ozonation process. The functional unit was defined as “treatment of 40 g of reactive dyed cotton fabric to achieve more than 94% color stripping”. Generic and specific data bases were also used to determine flows, and International Life Cycle Data system (ILCD) method was selected to convert all flows into environmental impacts. The impact category “Water resource depletion” is the highest for all the ozonation processes as it has the greatest relative value after normalization amongst all the impact indicators. Electricity and Oxygen formation were found to be the major contributors to the environmental impacts. New experimental conditions have been studied to optimize the impacts.