Techtextil to show latest developments in textile sensors

The companies are currently working together on body mapping solutions that illustrate the distribution of pressures on the body as it moves during high-performance sports so as to potentially provide new insights for the design of supportive clothing.

At the Institute of Textile Technology and Process Engineering (ITV) in Denkendorf two research projects supported by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research involve quite different sensors.

The lead project is called ‘SensProCloth’ and is concerned with the issue of ‘system-integrated sensory protective apparel for the fire service and incident response units’, while the second, related project is termed ‘iBePol’ and is derived from the first as ‘intelligent operational apparel for police and security forces.

The overall goals of both projects are to use system-integrated protective apparel to continuously capture and relay information about vital and status parameters, activities, ambient conditions and events in addition to providing emergency services’ communication and data transfer for the fire service and incident response units.

Furthermore the sensors should help determine the location of the emergency services in buildings or out in the field and in an emergency enable medical assessment of a condition by the emergency services so that assistance can be provided in time. In addition the communication and monitoring system should help the mobile operational control take decisions.

All the sensors to capture the vital parameters are contained in a tshirt that is worn against the skin. The vital parameters collected include hear-rate / ECG, breathing rate, body temperature and activity level. Ambient temperature on the outside of the clothing is measured to determine the environmental parameters and optical harmful gas sensors are used. These optical signal devices are also located on the outside of the clothing.

The risk status is signalled by a three colour LED traffic light and a buzzer. When the completed protective apparel was subjected to the Thermo-Man test, involving eight second exposure to fire at 1,000 degrees Celsius, there was no impairment of any kind to the protective function of the sensor system. After the test all the sensors and LEDs worked perfectly. In a flashover container it was shown that the sensors also measured temperatures over 250 degrees Celsius.