Whole garment knitting equipment for e-textile wearable healthcare applications

电子纺织品是一种先进的纺织品，具有从导电互连到传感/驱动、信号处理和无线通信的综合电子功能。新兴的先进电子纺织品技术为可穿戴医疗设备提供了一个革命性的新平台，预计到2026年，可穿戴医疗设备的市场将从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，穿着者熟悉。将纺织品制成服装(如背心、袖子)提供了一种易于穿戴的解决方案，并通过设计和材料选择改善了美学。电子纺织可穿戴设备将改善用户体验，提高用户对监测和治疗的遵从性，从而提高生活质量并降低医疗成本。医疗保健应用的例子包括健康监测(例如心率、呼吸、体温)和治疗(例如缓解疼痛、康复)。WHOLEGARMENT针织设备是一种计算机化的机器，能够完整地、无接缝地编织智能服装。它被广泛应用于时装行业的针织服装项目。它已经展示了编织用于医疗保健应用的电子纺织品的能力，例如，使用纺织纱线和导电纱线编织的心电图服。WHOLEGARMENT针织设备适合生产一系列具有精心设计的性能的服装，如厚度、伸缩性和透气性。全自动系统减少了人为错误和有缺陷的服装。该设计软件允许3D模拟和虚拟采样；减少了物理样品迭代的次数和交付时间。设计可以很容易地改变，以满足个人的需求，允许以低成本大规模定制个性化的电子纺织品保健产品。该项目旨在为电子纺织品保健研究购买Shima Seiki WHOLEGARMENT设备，该设备与医学研究理事会在应用健康研究、神经科学和精神健康以及人口和系统药物方面的战略重点保持一致。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法和传感电子纺织品，以及用于呼吸监测的可穿戴传感器。这两个项目都将开发他们的ISO 13485质量管理体系和技术文件，以证明遵守法规，这对于商业化获得社会效益和经济效益是必不可少的。WHOLEGARMENT设备的使用将提高原型/产品质量，确保工业相关性和可扩展性，并确保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获得最先进的工业设备的机会，有助于交付当前的研究项目和未来项目的创新想法，并与多学科项目团队和外部合作者合作。建立在电子纺织品医疗研究基础上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。可持续发展牢牢植根于我们所有的研究中，以最大限度地减少对环境的影响。这是通过使用可持续材料和先进制造(例如拟议的WHOLEGARMENT设备)来减少废物来实现的。原型/产品是为长期使用而设计的，在生命周期结束时可以拆卸和回收。电子纺织可穿戴医疗保健产品将使人们能够在家中管理自己的健康状况，释放医院的资源，并减少就诊次数。这些将有助于减少与住院和患者旅行相关的碳排放。

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.