Electronics and Textiles Come Together at IPC E-Textiles 2018

If your company has e-textiles and/or stretchable technologies on its roadmap and you find yourself asking the question, “How can I merge smart fabrics with smart engineering?” IPC has developed a technical and business education workshop to answer these questions and more. IPC E-Textiles 2018 will take place on September 13, 2018 in Des Plaines, Ill., and will bring together innovators, technologists and engineers to collaborate, and identify partners and solutions to propel growth for the e-textiles market.

Topics will deal with all aspects of e-textile development, including: smart textile wearables for consumers, sports, medical, military and safety markets; bringing the Internet of Things (IoT) to textiles; how to develop an e-textiles business model; how to collaborate with the supply chain to get the end-product you envision; and materials and components that make up e-textiles and how to select the right ones for your applications.

Oona Oksjarvi and Mary Alice Gill, of Jabil Circuit’s Nypro Consumer Health Division Clothing+ will present “We’re Successful When You’re Successful,” and will provide information on how to help achieve successful e-textiles manufacturing. Stephanie Rodgers, Apex Mills and Diana Wyman, American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists, will cover “FYI: Fibers, Yarns and Inks for E-textile Products,” and will shed light on the building blocks, capabilities and characteristics of e-textiles.

In addition, Ben Cooper, IoClothes, will present, “Picking a Winning Business Model for Smart Textiles,” and provide a review of existing business models in the textiles industry and opportunities and considerations along the textile value chain.

Prior to the technical education and networking on September 13, IPC E-Textiles 2018 will play host to an open-forum IPC E-Textiles Committee Meeting on September 12. Interested participants will have the opportunity to meet with e-textiles industry colleagues to brainstorm needed standards and test methods and learn how to influence industry standards being developed by the IPC E-Textiles Committee.

“Performance standards, guidelines and certifications allow us to achieve best practices for customer satisfaction and consumer adoption,” said Stephanie Rodgers.   Rodgers who chairs the IPC D-70 E-Textiles Committee and co-chairs the D-72 E-Textiles Materials Subcommittee which is developing the first industry consensus standard for e-textiles materials adds, “for e-textiles, there are limited publications creating a vortex between two industries. The absence of these standards creates cumbersome conversations, excessive development costs and limited long-term success. The work happening with IPC is engaging participants from both supply chains in a forum for identifying and communicating a hybrid language and establishing a protocol for e-textile product development and acceptance.”

For more information on or to register for IPC E-Textiles 2018, visit www.ipc.org/E-Textiles-2018. For more information the IPC E-Textiles Committee, contact Chris Jorgensen, IPC director of technology transfer, at ChrisJorgensen@ipc.org.