Author: ntueyarns

Research from the project was recently presented as part of a virtual booth at the Wearable Technology Show. In addition to the virtual booth, Dr Hughes-Riley was also invited to speak as part of the event and presented on recent advances made in the automated E-yarn production process as well as various innovations developed using the E-yarn technology. The Wearable Technology Show, which focusses on innovation in wearables, has run for eight years and further details on the event are available here.

The ATRG in collaboration with project partner QinetiQ have designed shoelaces that light up and flash. It is envisioned that the laces could improve safety for joggers and cyclists at night by increasing their visibility. The laces, shown above, each contain 24 LEDs, with the flashing pattern controlled by a small microcontroller discretely integrated into a silicone pod at the side of the shoe that also includes the battery. This research has been heavily reported on by the media, including major national newspapers such as the Daily Mail and The Times.

Dr Hughes-Riley recently presented a webinar on different methods of electronics integration used to create E-textiles. The webinar was part of the E-textiles Network webinar series and a recording of the webinar is available online here.

The talk introduces different techniques to manufacture electronic textiles, discussing their different characteristics and potential advantages or disadvantages. Methods for testing and characterising E-textiles are also discussed.

Members of the ATRG have recently published a review article on solar energy harvesting textiles. The article ‘A Review of Solar Energy Harvesting Electronic Textiles‘ focusses on the textile aspects of solar textiles, highlighting different textile properties and durability testing that has been conducted in the literature. The review has been written to be accessible and includes an introduction and overview to other forms of textile energy harvesting as well as the fundamentals of how solar cells work. The article was published in Sensors and is available here.

The ATRG have recently published a new article where they have studied the use of E-yarns for taking human skin temperature measurements during sub-maximal cycling trials. The study was not directly related to this project but has provided important information which will inform the E-yarn design moving forwards. The article was published in the Textile Research Journal and can be found here.

In January it was reported that the ATRG had developed a new process for soldering  solder two terminal devices onto insulated copper wires in parallel. The process has been refined over the past few months and an animation detailing each step of the process has now been produced.

Electronics Magazine have published an article on the project in the March 2020 issue of their magazine, available here.

The ATRG have published a new journal article on the wash testing of electronic yarns. The article ‘Wash Testing of Electronic Yarn‘, available here, covers the wash testing of copper wires within a knit braided sheath, E-yarns with embedded LEDs, E-yarns that incorporate a flexible circuit board, temperature sensing E-yarns, and acoustic sensing E-yarns.

Results from the project were also recently presented at the 27^th International Molecular Med Tri-Con in San Francisco earlier in the month. The poster, entitled ‘The Design and Development of Electronic Textiles for Health Monitoring Applications‘ included recent work on the automated soldering of semi-conductor devices onto thin copper wires.

Last month James Blackburn from FTS Dyers visited the ATRG to learn more about how electronic yarns will play a role in textiles and the textile industry in the future. FTS Dyers is specialist yarn dyers based in Langholm. More details are available here.

Electronics Point have recently published an article relating to the project, which can be found here.