Clevertex - Grado Zero Espace Srl

2.3.4 Applications in the interior textile sector
2.3.4.1 Research projects and products
The Romanian designer Andrea Apavaloaei, member of the international organisation INDEX that
aims at creation of new designs that improve lives of many people, created a concept of synergic
aggregation of textile and optical fibres. The concept foresees the combination of sensorial and
emotional properties together with the aesthetic function of a textile. Apavaloaei plans to integrate
these functions into a couch, a carpet and a tapestry. In order to result in relaxing, controlled thermal
comfort, ambient light, massage and controlled relative humidity, she wants to combine different fibres
and integrate them into the textiles. So far, the concepts have not been realised [163].
Fig. 91 Communicating couch, carpet and tapestry [163]
In the area of bright optical display textiles, Philips Research laboratories and Eindhoven University of
Technology developed a special open sandwich technique with which it is possible to deposit a layer
of liquid crystal onto a single underlying sheet. With this invention, wallpapers and curtains at home
could change colour by the touch of a button, or TV screens and plastic LCDs sewn into fabric
displaying text messages can be create. Liquid crystals are peculiar liquids as their molecules
spontaneously line up. Passing a voltage across the molecules switches their alignment, blocking the
transmission of light. Thus, a display might change colour from light to dark. The special LCD paint is
made by mixing liquid crystal with molecules that link together into a rigid polymer when exposed to
ultraviolet light. Special about the paintable LCD is that they use only a single substrate, as opposed
to the traditional two-plate. The LCD fabrication can be described as follows.
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