Committee targets e-textile washability, sets plans for IPC E-Textiles 2018

Aug. 17, 2018

Bannockburn, IL. IPC’s D-70 E-Textiles Committee has released IPC WP-024, IPC White Paper on Reliability and Washability of Smart Textile Structures—Readiness for the Market. This white paper provides insights from a team of researchers on e-textile washability testing parameters and initial results from those tests. IPC-WP-024 will be provided free to all attendees of IPC E-Textiles 2018, September 12 in Chicago. The D-70 committee plans to discuss how standards should address washability and reliability during the standards committee forum, which will take place the day before E-Textiles 2018.

Current research in smart textiles and e-textiles indicates that they are not yet ready for the market at a large scale due to problems that exist with reliability and the difficulty with laundering e-textile structures. Specific to reliability, e-textile structures should be in good functioning condition over a period of several years, if used in accordance with product guidelines. However, the additional issues of integration, connector elements, and overall supply chain integration are critical for success. IPC-WP-024 emphasizes all the problems inherent in creating effective e-textiles, encompassing efforts that industry and research laboratories must undertake to make e-textile structures more robust.

The D-70 committee plans for IPC-WP-024 to be the first in a series of papers from industry. The committee also invites readers to also provide white papers with their own findings and perspectives on e-textiles washability reliability. To propose a white paper topic, email [email protected].

Chair of the IPC D-70 Committee, Stephanie Rodgers of Apex Mills, said, “Home laundering and commercial cleaning is an everyday reality for millions of textile wearable products. Explosive growth in e-textiles is just starting to break through performance market segments making standardization urgently necessary. This e-textile laundering research identifies with the procedure and requirements gap of these merging manufacturing technologies. The IPC E-Textiles Committee is corralling industry manufacturers to participate in the discussion of new e-textiles standards creation.”

To register for IPC E-Textiles 2018, visit www.ipc.org/E-Textiles-2018. For more information or to purchase WP-024, IPC White Paper on Reliability and Washability of Smart Textile Structures—Readiness for the Market, visit http://shop.ipc.org/IPC-WP-024-English-D.

About the Author

Rick Nelson | Contributing Editor

Rick is currently Contributing Technical Editor. He was Executive Editor for EE in 2011-2018. Previously he served on several publications, including EDN and Vision Systems Design, and has received awards for signed editorials from the American Society of Business Publication Editors. He began as a design engineer at General Electric and Litton Industries and earned a BSEE degree from Penn State.