Something new to hold
“The German textile sector is in the absolute top group of innovative industries, comparable with mechanical engineering”, says the website of the Centre for European Economic Research. The Techtextil Innovation Award shows why that is true.
The Innovation Award traditionally attracts plenty of media attention: here Dr Klaus Opwis, from the Krefeld Textile Research Institute, explains the recycling of precious metals from industrial wastewater by use of textiles.
One of the awards in the category of “New Technology” went to Robert Bosch GmbH, the world’s biggest automotive supplier, and H. Stoll AG of Reutlingen, for a knitted sensor glove. Use of the silver-thread 3D flat-knitted hand glove is intended in future to handle virtual worlds, multimedia surfaces and machinery. “By this project we intended to show that it is possible to knit silver threads in one piece to make a smart glove”, says Martin Legner, product manager for technical textiles at knitting-machine manufacturer Stoll.
A smart textile also scooped the pool in the “New Application” category. The E-Caption 2.0 safety jacket from the University of Beira Interior of Portugal is intended to protect workers on radio masts – whose number is growing very rapidly, due to increased wireless and internet use – against radio-frequency radiation (RFR). LEDs applied to the outside of the jacket warn its wearer by an optical signal should the RFR exposure recommended by the EU be exceeded.
A joint Portuguese project with the significant name “Picasso” gained an award in the category of “Sustainability” for its new dying and functionalisation processes for clothing based on mushroom and plant extracts and enzymes. Meanwhile a new yarn of cork received the prize in the category of “New Material”. From this material, familiar to the layman rather from champagne and wine bottles, it is intended in future, among other things, to produce flexible fashion. And an embroiderable inductive charging coil for hybrid and electric cars also received a prize, about which you can find out more here.
Shoes instead of champagne stoppers: with comfortable shoes of cork like these the textile and clothing industry aims to travel a sustainable path
