Dr. Mridula Nair, Research Fellow, Eastman Kodak Company

How Kodak pivoted their long engagement with light management for creating images, to creating a disruptive light blocking textile coating. From concept to commercialization, they leveraged legacy competencies to transform, reinvent and reach a nontraditional destination.

Billie Whitehouse, CEO & Creative Director, Wearable X

Great design asks you questions and leaves you with a memory. This means designing for the 5 senses.

This class room session includes core fundamentals of designing invisible technologies and ensuring that the process does not forget how to make these technologies useable & even wearable. There will be discussion around the process for what makes good design good.

Jeremy Husic, Senior Staff Engineer, Inteva Products

Developing smart surface technology enables functional features in areas that were once just decorative automotive trim. Portions of the lighting and electronics are embedded into the trim layers, while others are packaged behind the substrate. Allocating the electronics in this new space has created a need for new business relationships. Technical challenges include material compatibility for bonding methods, appearance, softness, distinction of image, touch sensitivity, hidden front functionality, packaging space, connection and others.

Evelyne Orndoff, Non-metallic Materials Engineer, NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC)

“Resurrecting NASA Historical Fabrics” examines the NASA collection of fabrics developed since the beginning of Apollo program. Several of these fabrics would benefit the Artemis space program if they could be manufactured today.

Carsten Linti, Head of Technology Center Biomedical Engineering and Bastian Baesch, Head of Sensors & Actuators, DITF

So far, smart textiles have mainly been visible to private consumers in the areas of health and fitness, for example in sportswear or as simple touch sensors and 1D sliders. The direct implementation of the functional principle of complex sensors in textiles often leads to a high contacting effort in both directions of the textile surface. In order to achieve higher market penetration of smart textiles with increased functionalities, the manufacturing processes and products must be designed to be more cost-effective and suitable for textiles. Conductive yarns with sensor functionalities can help in this topic and be functionalized well for various purposes by using yarn wrapping technology.

The presentation gives an overview over several sensor yarn application developments in biomedical and technical applications by the DITF. Yarn and textile based Sensors for temperature and pH, moisture, touch and other applications are presented and their integration into textile products is discussed.

Learning Objectives:

1. How sensor yarns can be achieved using yarn wrapping technology.
2. How wrapped sensor yarns can be integrated into textiles.
3. What sensors can be achieved in textiles using wrapped sensor yarns.

Sasha Stolyarov, CEO, Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA)

Textile substrates provide unique opportunities to introduce advanced functionality that broadens the product application of textiles to include passive materials that provide novel means of protection to active systems that sense and provide feedback for personal well-being.  Collaboration and establishment of fundamental system-level building blocks are necessary to mature advanced functionality of fibers and fabrics for long term sustainment.  AFFOA’s focus on bridging the ‘valley of death’ for manufacturing readiness levels (MRL) 4-7 positions it well for enabling conversion of technologies to support the US domestic landscape in this ‘Textiles 2.0’ evolution.  Through this presentation, advanced functional fiber and fabric product opportunities and their related challenges will be reviewed along with AFFOA’s current and future strategies for developing infrastructure elements to support advanced functional fiber and fabric product maturation and commercialization.

Haskell Beckham, Ph.D., VP, Innovation, Columbia Sportswear

There is no air in space, so heat transfer takes place predominantly by radiation.  This required development of new materials for protection against the extreme temperatures of space, and has inspired Columbia Sportswear to create functional fabrics to keep people comfortable here on earth.  And now one of these new fabrics is going to the moon as part of a partnership with a space exploration company. This session will discuss the original inspiration for Columbia’s innovative line-up of functional fabrics, the fundamental science and technology behind it all, and why Columbia Sportswear is helping blaze a new trail towards the lunar surface.

Dr. Dawson Cagle, Program Manager, Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA)

In this session, attendees will learn about a significant new research program with the aim of developing garments with stretchable, washable electronic systems integrated within them. Research approaches will be described to improved electronic component compatibility, interconnect construction, power source challenges, haptics and feedback for these sensor systems. Potential applications for this technology will also be discussed in the fields of sports performance, medical, within the military and intelligence community.

David R. Forrest, ScD, PE, Principal Technical Consultant, Nexight Group

Back in 1995, at this Expo, David Forrest described the future of nanotechnology and what it might offer the textile industry.  It seemed likely that molecular machines could make an extensive range of products, from computers to textiles.  In this presentation, almost 30 years on, Forrest will review how nanotechnology has evolved from that early vision to where the technology is today. A milestone was reached in 2016 when the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for the design and synthesis of molecular machines. As advanced manufacturing takes on many forms, and robotics in particular grow in importance, this presentation looks at some of the possible futures for nanotechnology as it becomes capable of developments such as atomic quantum bits capable of storing basic units of information (qubits) with tremendous potential for wearables, with other developments ushering in a new era of textiles that are self-assembling and fully sustainable.

Matthew Reid, Industrial Market Manager, Vectran Fiber Division, Kuraray America, Inc.

LCP (liquid crystal polymer) fiber has a long history of being used in space exploration and other uncompromising environments where failure is not an option. Projects such as the Pathfinder, Spirit, and Opportunity Mars landings are a few examples where fabrics woven with LCP fiber were used in space application. Today, LCP fibers are being used to build the life habitat shelters that will be linked to the International Space Station. LCP technology has a unique combination of performance characteristics that allows it to perform in the extreme conditions that space presents. This presentation will discuss some of these space application projects, further explain LCP fiber, and dig deeper into why LCP fiber performs in applications like space exploration and other critical use environments.

Learning Objectives:

1. What is LCP fiber and what are its performance characteristics
2. How LCP fiber is used in space exploration and other applications
3. Why it performs in space applications and other extreme environments

Greg Nevolo, Product Innovation, ACI Materials Inc.

Learn how advancements in material science and manufacturing processes bring the next-generation wearable technology products and features from the lab bench into production.

Key Concepts:

1. Integration Challenges – New solutions require extensive learning curves
2. The ecosystem is complex – sensors, power, connectivity
3. How new technologies in materials and printing are evolving the landscape

Graham Page, Principal, AlchemyX, LLC

Since 1960s, a number of countries have been investing in the development of automated clothing manufacturing. In today’s world of shifting supply chains, adversarial geopolitics, increasing pollution, and labor shortages those countries that have been investing stand to benefit the most. No country wants to rely on another for manufacturing of critical supplies and that includes clothing. In this session, we’ll trace the technological breadcrumbs that led us to where we are today and look at some of the recent developments and research in robotics & automation for clothing manufacturing.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understanding efforts in automating clothing manufacturing over the last few decades
2. Current uses of robotics and automation in manufacturing of textile goods
3. Remaining technological challenges of full automation

Michelle E. Lishner, Development Engineer Lead, Cortland Biomedical

Join Michelle Lishner in this session to discuss how to design custom biomedical textile structures using high performance materials that are used for medical device applications. Discover the latest innovations in medical textiles and explore the process of launching a textile for clinical use – from product ideation to commercial launch.

Learning Objectives:

1. Design and development of implantable materials
2. Unique considerations for manufacturing medical textiles
3. Future trends in medical devices and how textiles can help

David Proctor, Ph.D., Technical Director, International Antimicrobial Council

This presentation will explain the differences between microbial and non-biocidal odor control technologies being used in the textile industry from three perspectives: technologies that are being used and how they work, regulation of these technologies in different locations, and how these technologies are tested. The presenter will also answer attempt to address what the appropriate options are for the specific textile product uses of presentation attendees.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand how microbial odor control differs from non-biocidal odor control for textiles.
2. Understand key regulatory considerations that differ for biocidal and non-biocidal odor control technologies for textiles.
3. Understand how testing non-biocidal odor control technologies differs from testing biocidal odor control technologies used on textiles.

Kevin Croneigh, Quality Manager, Situ Biosciences LLC

The presentation will cover two general topics: Antimicrobial Testing requirements for various Textiles, as well as an introduction to ISO 17034 Certified Refence Materials (CRMs) designed for use as Test Controls in Standard Antimicrobial Methods. We will review what methods are commonly used for testing Textiles for Antimicrobial properties, how to utilize CRMs in Antimicrobial Methods, the benefits of utilizing Certified Test Controls for both testing laboratories and manufacturers, and how they can be utilized to gain insight into product performance and streamline the production and R&D processes.

Learning Objectives:

1. How Manufacturers can utilize Certified Test Controls to verify a laboratory’s performance, streamline R&D and production processes, and allow for long term tracking of a product’s performance.
2. How Laboratories can utilize Certified Reference Materials to train employees, assess measurement uncertainty, and gain/maintain ISO 17025 accreditation
3. How Certified Test Controls can be created to increase the level of quality throughout the textile industry

Cory Schug, Patent Attorney and Jack Hicks, Patent Attorney, Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP

Iconic inventors from Thomas Jefferson to Steve Jobs credit their genius to improving upon the ideas of others.  But for the unwary, improving upon another’s concept can lead to patent lawsuits, injunctions, damages and attorneys’ fees.  Careful analysis and, where needed, product re-design can help insure that a successful inspiration does not become a painful infringement.

Caitlin Knowles, E-Textile Device Engineer, Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA); Dr. Matthew Trexler, Director of Technology Validation, Under Armour; Graham Sullivan, Founder and CEO, Seddi Inc

The textile industry has seen a strong push to digital product design in recent years motivated by factors including improved quality, reduced time to market, reduced cost, and sustainability. While great leaps have been made in digitizing the textile product design process, several barriers remain. In this session, participants will gain insights into the current state of technologies and software tools for designing, prototyping, and manufacturing advanced textiles, including both traditional fabrics/apparel and e-textiles. Topics will include textile digital twins, the importance of material libraries and accurate material parameters, multidisciplinary digital product development workflows, and the state of the art in current software.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the current state of the art in textile digital engineering.
2. Identify opportunities to utilize digital technologies in advanced textiles design workflows.
3. Describe the current capability gaps of digital design tools.
4. Recognize the need for the industry to develop supporting infrastructure elements.

Jason Smith, Customer Solutions and Business Development Lead, Aegis Aerospace, Inc.

What if the next great discovery to improve textiles came from research off the planet? In this presentation, let’s explore an out-of-this-world opportunity to reimagine the design, testing, production, and use of advanced textiles: textiles that last longer, perform better, and are more environmentally friendly – made possible through an easily accessible new technology platform…SPACE!

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand the opportunity to utilize space for advanced material design and testing.
2. Learn how space can help us build products with unique attributes that can’t be built terrestrially because of the lack of gravity.
3. Recognize why advanced materials R&D is so important to US competitiveness both on earth and in space.