Many interesting smart textile concepts have been developed, however there are only a few relevant examples of concepts that are producible and valuable for our society. The so-called ‘killer application’ has not been found yet. That is why it is extremely important that multi-disciplinary parties team-up during the ideation process to come up with innovative solutions (Toeters, 2007). The goal of STS CRISP (Crisp, 2011) is to integrate existing knowledge from partners in the separate domains of textile (soft materials), technology and service providers. To investigate the different kinds of expertise necessary for the development of Smart Textile Services we initiated an assignment to develop new Smart Textile Services concepts for elderly that can be used during rehabilitation (ten Bhömer, Tomico, Kleinsmann, Kuusk & Wensveen, 2012) and executed this project in 2 different institutes: Saxion University of Applied Sciences and Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Through some pre-set contact moments, the use of a gatekeeper (Vertooren, 2007) active in both institutes, and analyzing the final reports we are able to acquire an insight in the different approaches and focus preferences of the institutes. The analysis lead to the following observations: 1. Saxion students spend more time researching existing technologies and how to implement them in their concepts. A more theoretical approach from what is already there, applying existing materials and opportunities that are already there. 2. The TU/e students consistently focused on on user research to find out their perspectives. More user-centered. 3. Saxion students start with ideation and validate this by analyzing what is available in the market at the beginning of the process. 4. TU/e students work from a societal perspective towards user focus and an idea. TU/e students found out that there is a lot more steps after prototyping. Saxion takes the next step: where TU/e students stop, they continue. Out of these observations we can conclude that the institutes are active on different levels on the time-to-market line. We have to take into account that every collaborator has a different time-to-market horizon. For the STS CRISP consortium this means that efforts have to be made to define the time-to-market expertise of the partners. As a next step, we will continue to explore this concept of parallel collaboration assignments and start a new collaboration assignment in sequence in different institutes. Test the time-to-market approach and gather strategies to create a more in depth approach to relevant marketable products can speed up the process of bringing concepts to the market, so that it can have a true added value for society.
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This paper presents the results of the research project ‘Going Eco, Going Dutch’ (2015- 2017), which investigated the production, design and branding of fashion textiles made from locally produced hemp fibers in the Netherlands. For fashion labels and designers it is often difficult to scrutinize the production of textile fabrics manufactured in non-European countries due to physical distance and, often, non-transparency. At the same time, many designers and established fashion brands increasingly search for sustainable textiles that could be recycled or upcycled after being used by consumers. For the project ‘Going Eco, Going Dutch’, local textile manufacturers and fashion brands closely collaborated to explore how to develop fashionable textiles made from locally produced hemp – from the very first fiber to the final branding of the fashion product. In addition to the technical insights on the production of hemp, this paper will present and highlight the importance of the visual identity of the textiles, which was created by using Dutch traditional crafts – suggesting that this should be understood in terms of Kristine Harper’s ‘aesthetic sustainability’ (2017) as an essential design strategy. In addition, this paper will reflect on the importance of storytelling by focusing on locality and transparency, and on creating an emotional bond and connection between producer, product and consumer. This paper will argue that this form of ‘emotional durability’ (Chapman, 2005, 2009) is essential to both design and branding strategies. Moreover, this paper will critically reflect on the performance of Dutchness – Dutch national identity – through these locally produced fibers, textiles and fashion products.
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The in-depth assessment of the situation of the European textile and clothing sector is composed by six independent reports with a close focus on key aspects useful to understand the dynamics and the development of the textile and clothing industry, drivers of change – most notably the impact of the financial crisis – and identification of policy responses and best practices. This has been done in six specific tasks leading to the six reports: Task 1 Survey on the situation of the EU textile and clothing sector Task 2 Report on research and development Task 3 Report on SME situation Task 4 Report on restructuring Task 5 Report on training and Education Task 6 Report on innovation practices Task 6 focused on understanding how European textile & clothing companies are engaged into innovation practices. Hence key questions regard what is critical to transform knowledge and Research and Development (R&D) into good selling marketable products and which are the driving forces and relationships towards a better competitive performance through innovation. The analysis was carried out and the trends were then verified in selected regional cases: Lombardia Piemonte, Baden Württemberg, North Portugal and Galicia, Slovenia and Romania.
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Phosphorus is an essential element for life, whether in the agricultural sector or in the chemical industry to make products such as flame retardants and batteries. Almost all the phosphorus we use are mined from phosphate rocks. Since Europe scarcely has any mine, we therefore depend on imported phosphate, which poses a risk of supply. To that effect, Europe has listed phosphate as one of its main critical raw materials. This creates a need for the search for alternative sources of phosphate such as wastewater, since most of the phosphate we use end up in our wastewater. Additionally, the direct discharge of wastewater with high concentration of phosphorus (typically > 50 ppb phosphorus) creates a range of environmental problems such as eutrophication . In this context, the Dutch start-up company, SusPhos, created a process to produce biobased flame retardants using phosphorus recovered from municipal wastewater. Flame retardants are often used in textiles, furniture, electronics, construction materials, to mention a few. They are important for safety reasons since they can help prevent or spread fires. Currently, almost all the phosphate flame retardants in the market are obtained from phosphate rocks, but SusPhos is changing this paradigm by being the first company to produce phosphate flame retardants from waste. The process developed by SusPhos to upcycle phosphate-rich streams to high-quality flame retardant can be considered to be in the TRL 5. The company seeks to move further to a TRL 7 via building and operating a demo-scale plant in 2021/2022. BioFlame proposes a collaboration between a SME (SusPhos), a ZZP (Willem Schipper Consultancy) and HBO institute group (Water Technology, NHL Stenden) to expand the available expertise and generate the necessary infrastructure to tackle this transition challenge.
The textile industry faces a significant environmental challenge, annually generating 45 million tons of waste cotton textiles, of which 75% are incinerated or sent to landfills, causing environmental harm. Additionally, 67% of garments are made of plastic fibers, and when disposed of in landfills, 5% of them turn into microplastics that can end up on our plates. Chicfashic proposes an innovative biotech process to address these issues by recovering and recycling plastic fibers while transforming natural fibers into bio-based molecules. These molecules are then used as secondary raw materials to produce bio-based pigments for textiles. The project aims to optimize this process and test it on a larger scale with the assistance of HAN BioCentre. This initiative aligns with Dutch government and EU regulations mandating textile recycling by 2050. The technology used is patent pending and does not involve the use of toxic chemicals or the release of harmful wastewater or fumes, contributing to a shift towards a more circular and sustainable textile industry by reintegrating natural colorants into textile production.
This proposal is a resubmission of an earlier proposal (Dossier nr: GOCH.KIEM.KGC02.079) which was not approved because of the too ambitious planning. As advised by the commission, the focus is kept only on the recycling of the mattress cover. The Netherlands has 180,000+ waterproof mattresses in the healthcare sector, of which yearly 40,000+ mattresses are discarded. Owing to the rapidly aging population it is expected to increase the demand for these waterproof mattresses in the consumer sector as well. Considering the complex nature of functional mattresses, these valuable resources are partly incinerated. To achieve a circular economy, Dutch Government aims for a 50% reduction in the use of primary raw materials in five key economic sectors including ‘consumer products’ by 2030. Within the scope of this research, Saxion together with partners (CFC BV, Deron BV, MRE BV & Klieverik Heli BV) will bring emphasis on Recycling (sustainable chemistry) of mattress covers. Other aspects such as reuse and re-designing are beyond the scope of this project proposal, for which a bigger consortium will be built during the course of this project. A case under study is a water-impermeable mattress cover made of 100% polyester with polyurethane (PU) coatings. The goal is to enable the circular use of textiles with (multilayer) ‘coatings’, which are not recyclable yet. These ‘coatings’ comprise functional coatings as well as adhesion layers. Therefore, novel triggerable molecular systems and the corresponding recycling processes will be developed. The coatings will be activated by a specific trigger (bio)-chemical solvation, heat, pressure, humidity, microwave, or combination of thereof. The emphasis is to develop a scalable coating removal process. Learnings will be used to build larger (inter)-national consortia to develop multiple industry closed-loop solutions required for 100% mattress circularity with desired functionality. The generated knowledge will be used for education at Saxion.
