'Extreme Textiles' Come of Age

A knitted bag holds a weakened heart, helping it pump blood. Electricity flows through the threads of a battery-powered fleece jacket, keeping the wearer warm. Carbon fibers are braided into structures that look like mushrooms, but are actually prototypes of automotive engine valves. Other fibers are shaped into bicycle frames and sculling oars.

Textiles are no longer just the stuff of clothing, carpets and furniture covering. Made of high-tech threads, they can also be found in lifesaving medical devices and the bodies of racing cars. One architect is proposing building a skyscraper out of carbon fibers.

"I think there's more areas that are using textiles than there were before," said Matilda McQuaid, head of the textiles department at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, where 150 items showing the advances of materials science are on display in a show called "Extreme Textiles: Designing for High Performance."

In fact, textiles have long been used for more than clothes and rugs, said Dr. Peter Schwartz, head of the textile engineering department at Auburn University. "The Romans used jute fabrics for road stabilization," he said.

Many textiles are never seen, like those that are embedded in the rubber of automobile tires. "Not many people are quite aware of it," said Larry Q. Williams, business director of Invista, a company that makes a polyester fabric used in tires. "It's the polyester that's forming the shape of the tire and holding it together."

Otherwise, a tire "would immediately blow apart," Mr. Williams said. "Textile reinforcement of tires has existed as long as pneumatic tires have been built." Cotton textiles were used initially, followed by rayon and then nylon. But nylon had the problem of "flatspotting": when a car was parked for a while, the section pressed against the ground would harden and roll bumpily until the tire warmed up.

In the 1970's, polyester replaced nylon, and continual improvements in the textiles explain in part why tires now often last 80,000 miles instead of 10,000 to 15,000 miles.

Threads made of a wide variety of new materials, including metals, carbon fibers and high-strength materials like Kevlar, have further widened the use of textiles. Chemical coatings stiffen them or add additional properties like fire resistance.

"The uses are increasing in the high performance sector," Dr. Schwartz said. "People are looking at new polymers for fibers." For example, fibers that are more efficient at absorbing energy could lead to safer safety belts. Stronger fibers could be braided into ropes that could replace steel cables.

Squid Labs of Emeryville, Calif., has added microscopic strands of stainless steel to rope, making the rope electrically conductive. Pulling the rope changes the electrical resistance. For the Cooper-Hewitt show, Squid Labs built a jungle-gym-size gizmo that plays musical notes when visitors pull on the ropes. More practically, such rope could set off an alarm when it is fraying.

Woven electronics are not a new idea - the exhibit includes a prototype from 1960 - but the concept of "smart" clothing, carpeting or wall covering is nearing practicality. Infineon Technologies AG, a German chipmaker, has made a snowboarding jacket that plays MP3's and a carpet that can report the footsteps of an intruder or the heat of a fire.

ILC Dover Inc. of Frederica, Del., has developed technology for NASA that allows the outside of a spacesuit to act like a mouse pad for controlling computer functions. The electrical signals flow along metal-containing polymers in the suit's fabric, not metal wires. The circuitry is thus less likely to wear out or break.

"There is a lot of engineering that goes in the textiles," said Ms. McQuaid of Cooper-Hewitt.

Even so, today's textiles still show ancient patterns. "The weaving and knitting, the structures are identical to what were made way back when," Dr. Schwartz said.

The museum show largely overlooks one area of textile innovation, the so-called nonwovens, whose fibers are bound together in a random pattern. They can be found in bandages and diapers, among other items.

"But they're really boring to look at," said Susan Brown, an assistant curator of the show. "They might be really cool. They might be really interesting. They might do something great, but they come in the mail, and you're like, I can't put that in a museum."

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/ILC Dover
DESTINATION MARS A cocoon of 24 air bags cushioned the landing of NASA's Pathfinder rover in 1997. The air bags consisted of four layers of Vectran, a high-strength fiber that is a cousin to Kevlar that becomes stronger at colder temperatures. Similar air bags surrounded the NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity when they landed on Mars last year.

Testa Architecture and Design
CARBON TOWER Peter Testa, an architect in Santa Monica, Calif., has designed a 40-story skyscraper that would do away with steel for the structure. Instead, Mr. Testa's "woven building," shown in a model above, would be held up by a crosshatched lattice made of carbon fiber, which is several times stronger than steel. The building's interior would be completely open except for the elevator shafts.

Matt Flynn
BODY ENGINEERING Embroidered out of suture thread, this piece of textile would be sandwiched in an artificial shoulder joint. The starburst shape, 5.75 inches wide, allows the surgeon different options for securing the joint in place.

Cary Wolinsky/Aurora
POLYMER SKIN A process called electrospinning makes fibers out of an electrically charged solution containing dissolved polymers and sticks them onto an electrically charged surface. The fibers fall randomly but form a uniform layer, even on a three-dimensional surface. "It's sort of like spray-on Gore-Tex," said Dr. Heidi Schreuder-Gibson of the Army Natick Soldier Center. "It's very breathable, just like skin."

International Fashion Machines
SOFT SWITCH International Fashion Machines of Seattle has made a light switch in the shape of a pompom. Conductive fibers detect the press of a hand. "What I do is make fuzzy, beautiful, conductive things," said Dr. Margaret Orth, the company's founder. "You just squeeze the pompom, and the lights go on or off." Dr. Orth said she expected her fabric switches to reach stores later this year.

Vertigo Inc.
BUILDING WITH AIR The Army's AirBeam is designed for easily erected temporary buildings like medical buildings and aircraft hangars. "You just unroll it, inflate it and your tent is standing up," said Jean Hampel of the Army Soldier Natick Center, which is developing the technology. A prototype is being used for a medical aid center in Iraq.

Matt Flynn
REHEAT BEFORE USING When heated, carbon fibers turn pliable. ILC Dover Inc. in Delaware has developed structures that can be folded before launching and then reheated and unfolded in space. The military will use the technology for a space-based radar, and NASA could use it in the future for large space telescopes.

Matt Flynn
HOT HAND Conductive fibers in this prototype spacesuit glove allow circuitry to be woven in. The fibers are more durable than wires.

WARP AND WOOF Weaving takes two sets of threads, perpendicular to each other, and interlaces them. A plain weave, above left, is the simplest and strongest, while a satin weave, middle, packs in more threads, making a smoother surface. Knitting, right, interlocks loops from a single length of yarn.

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