Two projects jointly undertaken by the Institute of Textiles and Clothing (ITC) and the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA) bagged awards for their multi-faceted innovations presented during the 42nd International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva. Smart impact protective 3D-spacer fabrics of adaptive Stiffness by Hong Hu, Professor John Xin, Yanping Liu, Allan Chan and Huawen Hu won a gold medal.
Well balanced between protective performance and comfort, the new fabric is an ideal textile material to substitute polyurethane foams and rubbers which are currently used to produce high-performance protective garment and equipment.The special features and advantages of the invented material are high protective performance that meets Standard EN1621-1:1997, excellent comfort properties due to high air permeability and flexibility, good shape-adaptability of auxetic fabric to body curvatures and easy caring and cutting to any required size and shape.
A novel wearable thermal functional textile with conductive materials by Li Li, Kam Man Wan, Jia-hui Tong, Yuan-fang Zhao, Yeuk-fei Chan, Yin-ting Chui and Su Liu bagged a silver medal. The aim of this project is to develop a new generation of thermal textiles and specific manufacturing processes based on wearable electronic technology which can be incorporated textile products for the provision of temperature control both in general apparel and in specialist medical applications.
This is a pilot study to establish a systematic approach to design conductive textile stitches. Once developed, these thermal textiles can be applied in the production of outdoor apparel, home thermal products, healthcare and medical applications, and other potential areas where soft thermal comfort is required.
