Demonstrator: From relevant use cases identified by market research, online surveys, and involvement of our Advisory Board. the consortium selected the use case of social touch. To show the potential of the developed technology, a social touch sleeve was developed as demonstrator. During video conferencing users can send each other social touches with the sleeves.
Human perception: We explored the perception of textile muscles. Findings on tactile threshold, tactile spatial summation, tactile funneling, tactile apparent motion, experience of pressure stimuli and aging were translated into requirements for textile actuators. The demonstrators were evaluated in human participant user studies in a relevant application environment.
Actuation technology: The electroactive textiles developed that can be actuated with low voltage are a new class of actuators. Before WEAFING, the working principle was shown for knitted textile coated with EAP in aqueous salt solution. Current progress is that we have developed the first woven fabrics that move in air. The transition from passive to mechanically active structure is a paradigm shift for the textile community that requires new textile constructions. We have for the first time demonstrated that in-air, in-fabric actuated fabrics can be woven on real warped looms. We have developed weaving techniques that enable handling of the yarns while maintaining the integrity of the fabric. We have also developed new knitting techniques for handling actuating yarns.
Electroactive yarns: We made yarn actuators by coating commercial yarns with EAPs and optimised them. The performance was considerably enhanced as compared to the pre-WEAFING yarn actuators: in liquid actuation at 0.075% strain in 800s and 8 mN force). As a WEAFING outcome, we have now obtained fast (<1s ) actuation at 1.5% strain in liquid.
With a pilot line we are now able to produce coated yarns on the production scale of kilometres. Furthermore, these yarns were tested for handling in standard textile production machines. These are two important steps towards productification that have been achieved.
In addition to the in-air yarns based on the coiled yarns coated with the ionogels, we have also developed a new yarn actuator type that moves in air: tape yarns as a layered structure. As a WEAFING outcome, we have made small scale production of such tape yarns (1600 produced during WEAFING) that have been woven in fabrics, and used in the project demonstrator sleeve.
Ionogel development:
We developed new UV curable ionogels: a first generation of "wet" ionogels with present state-of-the-art ionic conductivities (from 10-4 to above 10-3 S/cm) and suitable mechanical properties (stretchability > 80%), and a second generation of "dry" ionic coatings which present state-the-art ionic conductivities (>10-5 S/cm), stretchability above 90% and are washable with dry-cleaning solvent.
For both, dynamic bond chemistry into the ionogel structures was introduced allowing unprecedented features such as self-healing of the ionic coatings, welding/co-bonding of two already polymerized coatings and recycling, which support better sustainability of smart textiles, have been only scarsely reported in the literature before WEAFING and never for smart textiles to the best of our knowledge.
Yarn actuators coated with these ionogels can move in air showing 0.3% strain and 3 mN force at 120s.
Two important steps achieved toward productification are: for the up-scaling we have constructed a pilot line allowing to produce ionoyarns on the order of kilometres. We also tested yarns for handling in standard textile production machines.
Communication: We developed a multi-media communication and dissemination plan. It tackles scientific peers, industries, in development and applications (Inclusion, Ergonomics, Sports, Medical, Gaming, Labour, Communication, Art/Fashion, and Safety) and end consumers to address market pull and technology push innovation. Over time over 300 live and virtual/online communication and dissemination activities (conferences, workshops, lectures, exhibitions, (scientific) publications, social media posts, videos, press releases, interviews) were received by tens of thousands of people and a potential of millions. So far, a patent analysis uncovered few to none technically similar patents. Some industrial stakeholders already reached out to the consortium for collaboration.
