New US advanced fabrics centre opens its doors
22/06/2017
The aim of the organisation is to develop new fabric and fibre-based products. Its new premises in Cambridge, Massachusetts will serve as a centre for the creation of advanced fabrics, such as those that can be used in health monitoring and communications.
“The institute seeks to create fabrics that see, hear, sense, communicate, store and convert energy, regulate temperature, monitor health and change colour,” explained AFFOA CEO Yoel Fink, who is a professor of material science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
AFFOA has established a network of more than 100 partners, including a number of US fabric manufacturers, as well as startup companies and universities from across the US.
The organisation has already developed its first products with the help of a high-tec product prototyping ecosystem known as the Fabric Innovation Network (FIN)). It consists of manufactures and academic centres that allocate part of their production capabilities to AFFOA products. This allows for the rapid creation of prototype products and pilot manufacturing operations.
The first products created as part of this project are a “programmable” backpack that can transfer information and a product platform, known as Fabric LiFI, which uses LED-based lighting systems to broadcast data at extremely high bandwidths. This could be used to provide accurate tracking and navigation in locations where GPS cannot penetrate.
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