Specialty Fabrics Review November 2022 - 38

[ MARKETS ] ADVANCED TEXTILES
A
Toward
standardization
for e-textiles
Collaborative projects will
introduce best practices.
by Chris Jorgensen
S THE E-TEXTILES INDUSTRY CONTINUES TO GROW,
it will be essential to have consensus-based international
standards to support the industry to ensure reliability
of materials and products and best practices used in design
and manufacturing.
As an industry trade association with decades of standards
development for the electronics manufacturing industry, IPC
International Inc. has a collection of more than 300 international
standards. These standards represent collective knowledge and
best practices from the supply chain and are used worldwide for
designing and manufacturing electronics.
An open process
All IPC standards are developed and maintained by volunteers from
the global electronics industry, and all IPC standardization activities
are open to anyone for free participation. This ensures that IPC
standards are representative of the industry at large, rather than
the case of pay-to-play standards development, which may serve to
benefit only the companies that can afford to play.
This approach has inspired the e-textiles industry to approach
IPC as a home to develop international standards. Starting with one
working group in 2017, the IPC E-Textiles Committee has grown
to encompass multiple working groups developing IPC standards.
These groups represent the full spectrum of those with interest in
e-textiles technologies, from academia to materials suppliers, to
integrators, to OEMs and brands.
 New standardization guidelines will allow the industry
at large to benefit from e-textile developments such as
pressure sensors woven into multilayered knit textiles
developed by MIT. Photo: MIT
Work in progress
Two IPC task groups are working on standards for conductive
yarns and woven, knitted and braided e-textiles, one of which is
new and the other a revision of the first standard published by the
committee. IPC/JPCA-8911, Requirements for Conductive Yarns
for E-Textiles Applications, is being developed jointly with the
Japan Electronics Packaging and Circuits Association (JPCA). This
new standard will identify categories and establish the classification
system, the qualification and quality conformance requirements,
and the test methods for conductive yarns used in e-textiles.
The need for this standard arose out of the revision of IPC-8921,
Requirements for Woven, Knitted and Braided E-Textiles Integrated
with Conductive Yarns and/or Wires, and this new standard will also
benefit new standards activities focused on embroidered e-textiles.
The goal for this standard will be to have base test methods that any
yarn supplier can use to show the electrical, thermal, mechanical and
chemical exposure characteristics of its materials according to specific
test methods. These will make it possible for customers to make
" apples-to-apples " comparisons of materials.
IPC-8921A will establish the classification system as well as qualification
and quality conformance requirements affecting electrical/
38 SPECIALTY FABRICS REVIEW / November 2022
Specialty Fabrics Review November 2022

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