BANNOCKBURN, IL — IPC’s D-70 E-Textiles Committee has released a new white paper on reliability and washability of smart textile structures.

IPC WP-024 compiles insights from a team of researchers on e-textiles washability testing parameters and initial results from those tests. The D-70 committee plans for IPC-WP-024 to be the first in a series of papers from industry.

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 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 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 etextiles@ipc.org.

IPC D-70 committee chair Stephanie Rodgers of Apex Mills says, “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.”

IPC-WP-024 will be provided free of charge to all IPC E-Textiles 2018 attendees. The D-70 committee plans to discuss how standards should address washability reliability during the standards committee forum, which will take place September 12, 2018, the day before E-Textiles 2018. To register for IPC E-Textiles 2018, visit ipc.org/E-Textiles-2018.

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