Wool performance apparel for sport
281
have substantially expanded the palette of designers, enabling one-piece
seamless garments tailored for individual sports to be manufactured in
one step. It is now possible to bring different
functionality to specific
locations within garments rather than using much more clumsy cut and sew
techniques.
Another recent advance rapidly finding acceptance among sports participants
is that of wearable electronic devices, some of which have already been
directly incorporated into sports apparel and footwear. These devices include
music players, GPS systems that give information about pace, speed, distance
covered and even calories burned, heart rate monitors,
communications systems
and more.
At the moment, apparel-based devices are achieved by deconstructing
existing systems, micro-miniaturising the components and rearranging them
to be more compatible with the clothing environment. The resulting garments
tend to be stiff and bulky in order to support the weight of the components
and are still reliant on conventional metal wire technology and batteries that
change the handle of the underlying fabric. Such systems will not find universal
acceptance until they are able be withstand the everyday rigours of traditional
garments and can be crumpled, ironed, thrown on the
floor or into the washing
machine without compromising functional performance.
Until very recently, functionality added to sports apparel has generally
been passive. Wearers have no influence over the magnitude of the functionality
or when it occurs. Functionality is generally associated with the response of
one or more physical properties of the material to a particular set of
circumstances. Benefits that might be highly desirable in one situation can
be very uncomfortable in another. These benefits are usually small in real
terms and often barely noticeable to the wearer. This situation is on the
threshold of change that will have significant implications for the textile
industry as a whole.
Recent developments in polymer technology
have achieved properties in
polymeric materials previously only possible with metals or solid-state devices.
Properties such as exceptional strength, electrical conductivity, the ability to
store energy or convert it into light or mechanical action, to convert light
into energy and to sense chemicals have all been achieved at levels that have
the potential to be exploited in some beneficial way, particularly in the area
of sports apparel.
The incorporation of mechanical or electronic functionality into textiles
using
these materials, sometimes at the nano-scale, will require the development
of new forms of sensors, actuators, energy sources and methods of
interconnection with mechanical properties that are more compatible with
textiles than current technologies. The key to compatibility is to achieve
similar levels of conformation in the components as the underlying substrate.
In some instances this will be achieved by developing components based
© 2009 Woodhead Publishing Limited
Advances
in wool technology
282
around fibres and yarns, in others by the application of flexible coatings.
Most will involve polymeric materials with specific properties assembled or
applied within the textile-processing pipeline rather than discrete devices
retro-fitted to the finished clothing.
The terms ‘intelligent’ and ‘smart’ clothing have been coined to describe
the products now beginning to emerge from these developments. In the
textile sense, intelligent implies that the garment has the ability to sense and
proactively respond in some beneficial or desired way. The possibilities that
this sort of functionality could bring to sports apparel are endless. Mechanical
changes in fibre orientation and arrangement could be used to vary the
thermal resistance and air permeability
of textile fabrics, enabling a single
garment or combination of garments to be worn by those involved in outdoor
and winter sports rather than adding or removing layers as weather and
activity levels change. Switchable fibre surface energy that is hydrophilic
when sweat pick-up is needed but could be reversed to become hydrophobic
as desired to make the garment repellent to rain would find a ready outlet in
a wide range of applications.
Active functionality generally requires some form of energy source together
with associated electronics and circuitry. Over the past few years the
development of polymeric electronic circuitry and conducting elements has
attracted the interest of many research organisations around the world. In the
apparel context, such materials are known as electronic textiles.
Power sources
based on the capture and storage of solar energy directly within the garment
are a key to truly stand-alone devices and this is an area of research that is
currently expanding rapidly.
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
