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Weihua Shi: College of Textiles, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA
Trevor Little: College of Textiles, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: This work is sponsored by Army Research Office (Grant No. DAAH04-96-1-0018) and was conducted at the College of Textiles, North Carolina State University.
Introduction
Apparel is changing in terms of its functions by integrating "smart" materials. In addition to current comfort and aesthetic attributes, the garment of the future will include inherent "circuitry" to transform the traditional garment into an intelligent and individually protective clothing system. Seams and patches of the garment are latent places to incorporate these functions. This paper looks at the potentials for building "smart seams" which incorporate sensors or actuators and data from these paths communicate with a wearable transmitter. Optic fibers and ultrasonic bonded seams offer one way to fabricate intelligent clothing systems. In this paper, the state of the art is reviewed and the research to optimize the fabricating methodology is presented.
Joining techniques
Fabric, the most common form of textile materials for garments, can change shape by bending, shearing, stretching or contracting. Despite fabric's capability to drape over simple 3D objects, complex 3D shapes of human bodies require that garments must be made by joining panels of various 2D shapes. Many joining methods are available to garment manufacturers, such as sewing, ultrasonic bonding, thermal bonding and laser enhanced bonding (LEB), etc., each with their own advantages and disadvantages.
Sewing, which joins individual panels together with another textile element (thread), provides adequate strength, elasticity and aesthetic properties. However, sewing produces discontinuous joints and perforated seams. To produce continuous and non-perforated seams, other joining methods are necessary. Thermal bonding (i.e. hot-tool and hot-gas welding), LEB and ultrasonic bonding involve melting and cooling of thermoplastics at the joining interface. These thermoplastic components may be present as hot-melt fibers, powders, films, or the sheath on bicomponent fibers. In the thermal bonding process, surfaces to be joined are melted individually by direct contact with heated elements and then brought together. The interfaces are allowed to cool and solidify under controlled pressure (Stokes, 1989). The main disadvantage of this technique is that excessive heat conducted through fibers can cause fiber degradation. Light Technologies Group and Union Special Corporation (Fraser and Whitwell,...