Encouraging new research papers in SMART, high performance and design/technology interface aspects of textiles and clothing

Citation

Stylios, G.K. (2009), "Encouraging new research papers in SMART, high performance and design/technology interface aspects of textiles and clothing", International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, Vol. 21 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijcst.2009.05821aaa.001

Encouraging new research papers in SMART, high performance and design/technology interface aspects of textiles and clothing

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, Volume 21, Issue 1

As we are entering Volume 21 and taking stock of the research field around the globe, I want to encourage papers in the newer areas of knowledge creation. These areas have been featured already in high quality papers in IJCST, however their importance and the continuous gain of new ground need further exposure. We must never forget of course the fundamental areas, however traditional maybe, that we established in IJCST all these years. After all original research is new knowledge in whichever spectrum it belongs.

The field of SMART and intelligent textiles and clothing is already in the market with unique products and it is expanding in innovation and use. Research council budgets and company R&D are increasing in this research area in every industrialised economy. A paper in SMART is indeed featured in this very issue.

High performance textiles and garments cover a very wide spectrum of industrial applications; clothing and garments for athletes, military and medical may be some obvious examples, its other end uses however go much further afield into automotive, aerospace, shipping, civil engineering and in aspects of energy. In the latter there is an increasing scope of use of eco-efficient textile products for a number of applications, some examples may be the possibility of reduction of weight with no loss of strength in engineering materials and structures, in biodegradable products and in products that harvest energy. Nanotextiles play an important part in all these, especially in the form of coatings and membranes at the present time.

Design is another interesting area which may mean different things to different people. Our philosophy is the one that in the textile sense design should incorporate knowledge of the new materials that it will need to use, make and manipulate for realising the design perception in the best possible way. To that effect all efforts in defining simple and complex fabric properties, from the prediction of drape to mass customisation, are aspects that ought to be covered here. By bridging textiles and technology and working at the design/technology interface we can create new ideas; solar power enabling garments, shape and colour changing fabrics, intelligent ambient upholstery, wearable data acquisition suits, and emergency garments are some examples of this.

In the first issue of 2009 we have five new research papers. The one by E. Hezavehi and co-workers investigates the wrinkle force of worsted fabrics in which the fabric is formed as a cylindrical shell compressed and rotated under axial load and rotational angle. This study aims to determine wrinkle force under the combined influences of compression and torsional strains. Paper two is by Miao-Tzu Lin. The hierarchical order-based genetic algorithm proposed in this study is able to make random and global searches to determine the optimal solution for multiple apparel manufacturing layouts simultaneously. Belinda T. Orzada and co-workers report on the effect of laundering on fabric drape, bending and shear; an area of research interest for many years. The relationship of fabric laundering and garment drape is important for garment design and use. Paper four is by Nilgün Özdil and co-workers who report their research on the abrasion resistance of socks. The paper sheds light into those parameters affecting sock abrasion, important for producer and consumer alike. The ultimate paper for the issue is in the area of SMART textiles. Factors affecting recovery of PTT shape memory fabric to its initial shape, an interesting paper by Lihuan Zhao and colleagues, which reveals that PTT shape memory fabric has excellent shape recoverability and easy care properties, rendering it suitable for a lot of textile garment end uses.

IJCST is indexed internationally and authors, their work and their institutions are featured worldwide. We continue to publish high quality original refereed papers and ask our community of authors and referees to help us maintain our aim which is to publish new, high quality, original refereed papers in the broad spectrum of the textiles and clothing discipline.

George K. StyliosEditor