Smart Textiles for more comfort in everyday life

How embroidery technology supports Smart Living

The development of smart textiles has made rapid progress in recent years. Today, there is a lot of innovative potential for equipping textile products with electronic functions. One application that is particularly suited to the smart living sector is the use of smart systems to support health care and health monitoring.

The use of embroidery technology enables the development of especially flexible and wearable devices that fit closely to the body and offer the possibility of active body stimulation. Several thin layers within an embroidered element can fulfill different tasks.

Examples include intelligent functional elements for underwear or special wellness bands. Here, electrical wires are stitched onto a carrier fabric and small actuators are integrated into precisely fitted recesses (using laser cutting). These actuators allow transmission vibrations directly to the affected part of the body. Another layer of fabric is embroidered with heating wires that emit pain-relieving heat when needed and provide more comfort. This system can be integrated by customers into their textile products. A variety of different controls is feasible. For instance, it is possible to develop a system to control the functions via a smartphone app, adjust the intensity of heat or vibrations, and track treatment times.

Smart textiles, thus, contribute to the concept of smart living by allowing health-promoting functions to be used from the comfort of one’s home. They also give the wearer more control over the treatment and can, thus, support the effectiveness of therapies.

As specialists in smart textiles, we encourage manufacturers in the smart living sector to incorporate a diverse range of functional integrations into their product development.

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