The global smart textiles products demand is increasing by every passing day. The day to day new innovations in wearables is changing the way of people’s life. If we have a look on the conductive textile market value in year 2016 then it was US$ 1.02 bn. And based on the previous and current growth rate of the market (CAGR 15.6%), it is projected to touch US$ 2.11 bn till year 2021. In year 2015, the woven textile segment was the largest consumer of conductive materials. Whereas, the leading consuming industries include military, defense, healthcare and sports & fitness. On the other hand, the minor industry users include aviation sector, automotive and architecture sectors included.
The main reason of growing demand of conductive textile is an increasing awareness about the advantages of conductive material based products. Now days, the biomarker monitors are commonly used in healthcare and fitness industry. As with the help of which, you can easily check your heart rate or can even count your steps. Due to technology useful attributes, the application of the smart wearables and other electric devices is significantly increased in military and defense industries.
Textiles New Innovations in Military and Defense:
As of now, the military and defense sector is prove to be the largest consuming sector of smart wearables of textile. At one side, nanotechnology and other electric gadgets are used for military uniform. On the other hand, a conductive textile is protecting soldiers from extreme weather conditions (hot, cold, rain, moisture etc.). Moreover, the new innovations of smart textiles can also be observed in their parachutes, tents, ropes and other daily appliances. In short, whatever the situation is there, whether it’s a matter of safety (nuclear, biological and chemical threats) or routine movement (navigation help), the usage of smart wearables is unavoidable. Along-with that now a days, the conductive textile technology is also applying in personal clothing too.
Conductive Textile Regional Growth:
Although, the Europe’s conductive textile industry growth in is really significant. And the overall research and development outcome of conductive textiles in Europe is noteworthy. It categorizes under leading consumer of conductive textiles products with the rise-in market anticipation upto US$340.6 million by year 2022. But North America remains dominant in global conductive textiles market. As its conductive textiles market value was USD 472.9 million in year 2016. And now it is projecting to rise from US$340.3 million to US$445 million for the year 2017-2022. There are also some other countries like UK, China, Germany, Japan and other Asia-pacific regions which are continuously working on the new innovations in conductive textile market.
Things to do:
Despite of hasty new innovations and hopeful future projection, the cost factor is still a big restraint in the overall growth of conductive textiles. As the high cost of conductive and other smart materials could directly affect the price of the final product. So, in many countries, there are extensive public and Government funded research and development programs are running. And the main motive of these projects is to increase production of smart textile products with competitive cost. Especially Europe funded projects are really supporting the manufacturers to come up with new innovations in smart textile products.
