Reflective garment to help in patrolling

Coimbatore, Oct 26 (UNI) The Department of Textile Technology in the city-based PSG College of Technology has invented 'Illuminated Clothing'', made of reflective florescent material, to help policemen in night patrolling.

Professors L Ashok Kumar, A Venkatachalam and A N Sai Krishnan are the inventors of the new technology.

Talking to UNI here today Prof Kumar said ''this new clothing is made from reflective florescent material that acts as a reflective personal safety garment'' Stating that the design was a fusion of textile and electronics, he said the clothing had a layer that protects the body against hazardous environment.

It was developed by the integration of Polymeric Optical Fibre material of 'Poly Methyl Metha Acrylate' (PMMA). This material is currently used for data transmission in the communication sector.

Polymeric Optical Fiber (POF) is used for simple light guide and illuminated applications.

Conventional PMMA and Poly Cabonae (PC) Fibers were produced experimentally through single-screw and conical extrusion. The fibre is integrated in woven structures by means of handloom, narrow fabric weaving and Jacquard technology.

The PMMA material of size 0.4, 0.5, and 0. 7 mm filament is used as a weft to weave the material. The end-emitting material is converted into side-emitting by providing special surface treatment of 600 grid abrasive paper. The material is then woven in a sample pit loom with painted twill and sateen weave.

Mr Kumar said the illuminated system was prepared by connecting the ends of woven fibre into the fibre optic cable to LED and this system was switched on by three volts of power. It was stitched into a specific part to give a silhouette effect.

It is designed for safety purposes and it is possible to produce the woven fabric using PMMA to get glowing effect with a slight modification in the weave geometry. The illumination effect on clothing is also influenced by the different colours of LEDs.

The wavelength of different colours influences the illumination, he said.

It could also be used for transferring images or text from a mobile phone to optical fiber screen of the garment to bring animated effect. It is possible to vary the brightness of the screen as per the environment, using low frequency sensitive circuit.

Efforts are on to develop the system for medical textile by using the material as surgical tool for photo therapy system.

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