Whole garment knitting equipment for e-textile wearable healthcare applications

用于电子纺织品可穿戴医疗保健应用的整衣针织设备

• 批准号: MR/X013022/1
• 负责人: Kai Yang
• 金额: $ 19.27万
• 依托单位: University of Southampton
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FX013022%2F1
• 关键词: Whole; garment; knitting; equipment; textile

E-textiles are advanced textiles with integrated electronic functionality ranging from conductive interconnections to sensing/actuating, signal processing, and wireless communications. Emerging advanced e-textiles technologies offer a revolutionary new platform for wearable healthcare devices, the market for which is projected to reach $30.1 billion by 2026 from $16.2 billion in 2021. Textile materials are soft, breathable, comfortable to wear, and familiar to the wearer. Making textiles into a garment (e.g. vest, sleeve) provides an easy to wear solution and, via design and material selection, improved aesthetics. E-textile wearable devices will improve the user experience and increase user compliance to monitoring and treatment leading to improved quality of life and reduced healthcare costs. Examples of healthcare applications include health monitoring (e.g. heart rate, breathing, temperature) and treatment (e.g. pain relief, rehabilitation). WHOLEGARMENT knitting equipment is a computerized machine that is capable of knitting smart garments in their entirety without seams. It has been widely used in the fashion industry for knitting clothing items. It has demonstrated the capacity to knit e-textiles for healthcare applications, for example, the electrocardiogram (ECG) garment knitted using textile yarns and conductive yarns. The WHOLEGARMENT knitting equipment is suitable for producing a range of garments with carefully designed properties such as thickness, stretchability, and breathability. The fully automated system reduces human errors and faulty garments. The design software allows 3D simulation and virtual sampling; reducing the number of physical sample iterations and lead time. The design can be changed easily to meet individuals' needs allowing mass-customisation at a low cost for personalised e-textile healthcare products. This project aims to acquire a Shima Seiki WHOLEGARMENT equipment for e-textiles healthcare research which aligns with the Medical Research Council strategic priorities in applied health research, neuroscience and mental health, and population and system medicines. It will also support our current funded transitional research projects on medical product development including an electrotherapy and sensing e-textile for osteoarthritis pain management and a wearable sensor for respiration monitoring. Both projects will develop their ISO 13485 Quality Management System and Technical Documentation to demonstrate regulatory compliance which is essential for commercialisation to capture societal and economic benefits. The use of the WHOLEGARMENT equipment will improve prototype/product quality, ensure industrial relevance and scalability, and cost effectiveness for customised designs. The proposed equipment will provide opportunities for Research Technical Professionals to access state-of-the-art industrial equipment, contribute to the delivery of current research projects and innovative ideas for future projects, and collaborate with multi-disciplinary project teams and external collaborators. The skills and experience built on e-textiles healthcare research will improve their employability and competitiveness because it is a fast-growing niche area. Sustainability is firmly embedded in all our research to minimise the impact on the environment. This is achieved through using sustainable materials and advanced manufacturing (e.g. the proposed WHOLEGARMENT equipment) to reduce waste. The prototypes/products are designed for long term use and can be disassembled and recycled when they arrive at the end of the life cycle. E-textile wearable healthcare products will enable people to manage their health conditions at home freeing resources in hospitals and reducing hospital visits. These will contribute to reducing the carbon emissions associated with the hospital stay and patient travel.

电子纺织品是具有集成电子功能的先进纺织品，从导电互连到传感/致动，信号处理和无线通信。新兴的先进电子纺织品技术为可穿戴医疗设备提供了革命性的新平台，预计到2026年，该市场将从2021年的162亿美元达到301亿美元。纺织材料柔软，透气，穿着舒适，并且对穿着者来说很熟悉。将纺织品制成服装（例如背心、袖子）提供了一种易于穿着的解决方案，并通过设计和材料选择提高了美观性。电子纺织品可穿戴设备将改善用户体验，提高用户对监测和治疗的依从性，从而提高生活质量，降低医疗成本。医疗保健应用的示例包括健康监测（例如心率、呼吸、温度）和治疗（例如疼痛缓解、康复）。Wholegarment针织设备是一种电脑化的机器，能够编织智能服装在他们的整体没有接缝。它已被广泛用于时装业的针织服装项目。它已经证明了为医疗保健应用编织电子纺织品的能力，例如，使用纺织纱线和导电纱线编织的心电图（ECG）服装。WHOLEGARMENT针织设备适用于生产一系列具有精心设计的性能，如厚度，拉伸性和透气性的服装。全自动系统减少了人为错误和有缺陷的服装。该设计软件支持3D仿真和虚拟采样，减少了物理样品迭代次数和交付周期。设计可以很容易地改变，以满足个人的需求，允许大规模定制，以低成本的个性化电子纺织品医疗保健产品。该项目旨在获得一台岛精机WHOLEGARMENT设备，用于电子纺织品医疗保健研究，该研究符合医学研究理事会在应用健康研究，神经科学和心理健康以及人口和系统医学方面的战略优先事项。它还将支持我们目前资助的医疗产品开发过渡研究项目，包括用于骨关节炎疼痛管理的电疗和传感电子纺织品以及用于呼吸监测的可穿戴传感器。这两个项目将开发其ISO 13485质量管理体系和技术文件，以证明符合监管规定，这对商业化至关重要，以获得社会和经济效益。使用WHOLEGARMENT设备将提高原型/产品质量，确保工业相关性和可扩展性，以及定制设计的成本效益。拟议的设备将为研究技术专业人员提供机会，以获得最先进的工业设备，为当前研究项目的交付和未来项目的创新想法做出贡献，并与多学科项目团队和外部合作者合作。基于电子纺织品医疗保健研究的技能和经验将提高他们的就业能力和竞争力，因为这是一个快速增长的利基领域。可持续发展是我们所有研究的核心，以尽量减少对环境的影响。这是通过使用可持续材料和先进制造（例如，拟议的WHOLEGARMENT设备）来减少浪费。原型/产品设计用于长期使用，并且在生命周期结束时可以拆卸和回收。电子纺织品可穿戴医疗保健产品将使人们能够在家中管理他们的健康状况，从而释放医院的资源并减少医院就诊。这将有助于减少与住院和患者旅行相关的碳排放。

项目成果

The Influence of Distance between the Electrode and Noise Reduction Buffer Amplifiers in ECG Monitoring Using Knitted Electrodes

针织电极心电监护中电极与降噪缓冲放大器距离的影响

• DOI: 10.3390/engproc2023052020
• 发表时间: 2024
• 作者: Greig T