Within the Minor Design of functional technical textile products, students of different disciplines will develop together concepts and applications combining the properties of technical and functional textiles with their own expertise and skills.
What is this course about?
Developments in materials science, polymer chemistry and biotechnology have increasingly lead to new (textile) materials with new and innovative functionalities. In addition, developments in the field of microelectronics and ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) enable the development of various types of smart textiles. These new materials (whether or not in combination with electronics), are increasingly being used in building construction, civil engineering, automotive, defence, medical applications, transportation etc. Technical and functional textiles can be used in the form of fibres, yarns and /or textiles or incorporated in a composite (fibre reinforced materials). The end applications area is truly multidisciplinary.
In the first phase of the minor, there will be three short individual assignments related to the markets and applications of functional and technical textiles. Following, within this minor, students will work in a multidisciplinary team (of course depending on the entries!) of 3-4 students. They will design a textile product in the area of functional and/or technical textiles belonging to a specific market segment and develop a prototype of this product. The multidisciplinary team of students will function as the product development team of a company which is responsible for the entire development of a new technical and functional textile product. It starts with description of target group and it goes up to prototype development. The market segment and end-users for the selected product will be identified. Thereafter, the wishes and needs of the end users have to be formulated. This will lead to formulation of the user requirements at the product level. The formulated properties and functionalities of the proposed product should be optimally matched to the user requirements. This will lead to a functional design of the product using the concept of a product breakdown. The design will ultimately lead to a working prototype, which has to be validated.
Most assignments originate from industry and the multidisciplinary teams operate in close cooperation with industry and the research chair Smart and Functional Materials.
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