Mevr. Victoria Dutschk, EFSM

Donderdag 26 mei - 12.20 uur - 13.00 uur minisymposium zaal

Minisymposium: Slimme en functionele materialen

De derde spreker van het minisymposium op 26 mei is Mevr. Victoria Dutschk van het EFSM.  Zij zal toelichten wat er verwacht kan worden van de ontwikkeling van zogenaamde smart textiles.

Engineering of Fibrous Smart Materials

V. Dutschk, J. Zhao, P. Glampedaki, M.M.C.G Warmoeskerken
EFSM Industrial Research Group, Faculty of Engineering Technology,
University of Twente, Enschede

According to the recently published study about textile research in Europe [1], the textile and garment industry in Europe is one of the most important innovative industries with a great future. For many decades, the industry has undergone a remarkable change. Starting with classic application such as garments, fibre-based materials are used in many industries today. Architecture, geology, landscaping, environment, automotive, aircraft engineering or medicine are just some of the current areas of application. Textile technology gains weight and their perspective features were recognized:

• Diversity: Wealth of variants in the field of textiles is extraordinary large due to different fibre types and their mixtures, filament and yarn manufacturing and surface modifications.
•  Compatibility: Textiles are predestined for a large spectrum of combination with other materials such as plastics, concrete, metals, paper. Creating new composite materials with reduced weight and noise is an important contribution in respect of indirect energy savings. 
• Functionality: Textile interfaces can be modified by different physical and chemical methods towards enhancement their properties in respect to absorption, repelling, porosity, molecular detection, controllable release of other substances.
• Flexibility: Textile materials can be reversibly and durably deformed; from elasticity, thermoplastic modelling of 3D-textile pre-assembled components to their use in automotive industry, constructional engineering, aircraft manufacturing, medical and hygiene engineering.
• Interactivity: Textile materials can be used in micro-systems technology as a data medium, e.g. sensors, actuators, transponder etc. with a further integration such smart devices into home and fashion textiles.
• Productivity: The well-established methods of textile manufacturing are high-grade automatic and productive. Adapting manufacturing techniques to other non-textile industrial sectors opens new opportunities for enhancement of energy efficiency and industrial design.

The research activities of the EFSM Industrial Research Group at the University of Twente are related to fundamental material research having strong links with textile and related industry. The studies are limited to woven and non-woven fabrics, yarns and fibres. Our research mainly focus on two innovation topics (i) The use of ink-jet printing process to modify textile materials in order to their functionalisation with a specific property and (ii) Surface modification of fabrics aimed to functionalisation and re-functionalisation using different physical, physico-chemical and chemical processes.

1 K. Huneke ‘Textile research in the European network’, Allgemeiner Vliesstoff-Report 5, 2010.