2023-10-26 19:15:46
Instead of resorting to a different garment for cold days and another for warm days, imagine a jacket that dynamically changed shape to become more insulating, keeping you warm when the temperature dropped, while cooling you when the weather was warm.
A recently created programmable fiber could make this idea a reality. Known as FibeRobo, the fiber contracts as the temperature increases and that action reverses when the temperature decreases. And it does all this without needing sensors or other rigid components.
FibeRobo is the work of a team including, among others, Jack Forman, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States.
This low-cost fiber is fully compatible with textile manufacturing techniques, including looms, embroidery equipment and industrial knitting machines, and can be produced continuously for miles. It does not need compressors to pump compressed air as was the case with a previous experimental fabric, its shape changes can be extensive instead of being limited to being modest as in other previous fabrics, and it continues to function after many transformation cycles unlike what happens to other metamorphic tissues.
The qualities of FibeRobo will allow it to be easily provided with mechanical action functions and function as a sensor, for a wide range of applications, such as programmable compression garments that could help, for example, post-operative recovery.
FibeRobo can change shape in response to thermal stimuli. It is fully compatible with existing textile manufacturing machinery, and could be used to make metamorphic fabrics, such as a jacket that becomes more insulating to keep the wearer warm when temperatures drop. (Image: research and development team/MIT/Northeastern University. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)
Fibers of the FibeRobo type can also be combined with conductive thread, which acts as a heating element when electric current passes through it. In this way, the fibers act through electricity, which offers the user digital control over the shape of a fabric. For example, a tissue could change shape based on any digital data, such as readings from a heart rate sensor.
Forman and his colleagues present the technical details of FibeRobo at the UIST 2023 conference, which is being held in the US city of San Francisco. The presentation is titled “FibeRobo: Fabricating 4D Fiber Interfaces by Continuous Drawing of Temperature Tunable Liquid Crystal Elastomers.” (Source: NCYT from Amazings)
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