Wearables Update: E-Textile Testing Progress

Standards and test method development organizations worldwide are now, both individually and jointly, pursuing the testing of e-textile quality. Familiar names to textile professionals, such as AATCC and ASTM International—along with UL, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) for the electronics industries—are proposing new tests that will help provide reliability, quality, and safety for consumers purchasing e-textiles. An article in the July/August 2016 AATCC Review, “E-Textile Standards Surge Forward,”1 highlighted the challenges facing both textile and electronics standards organizations as they grapple with the demands of having electronic components and fibers integrated into fabrics. It may sound farfetched to think about laundering computers. Or measuring the conductance of a dress. But technological innovation and consumer demand is rapidly taking us “where no man has gone before.” And standards for these modern miracles must match both the direction and pace of realistically-envisioned products.