Guide for new business and research ideas

Action

Content

Title of the project

Multifunctional Clothes for Wheelchair Users

Envisaged Program for funding / other sources for funding

Research projects

Domain of interest

Multifunctional textiles, textile testing, virtual prototyping, textiles and clothes products production

Abstract

(up to 500 words)

The paraplegics are faced, because of the primary disease and other accompanying health problems, such as limited mobility of hands, atrophy of muscles in the legs, regulation of body temperature, cardiovascular complications, etc., in particular with urinary infections, incontinence, irritation and inflammation of the skin and pressure sores, with difficulties when wearing clothes because of their insufficient functionality and comfort.

These deprive them to equal participation in the social environment. In terms of additional health problems and clothing, particularly problematic are crotch area and areas in contact of body with clothes and wheelchair.

After a review of the literature, to date the carried out research and development of garments for paraplegics have been performed mainly with the aim to improve theirs daily living activities and to design individually adapted ergonomic clothes, which do not cause additional health problems to paraplegics. In particular, due to chronic urinary infections, incontinence, irritation and inflammation of the skin and pressure sores, there is a need to develop multifunctional garments for paraplegics and wheelchair users, respectively, that act as a prevention and curative for their health problems.

Today, there is upsurge interest in the apparel industry on demanding functionality of textile products, such as wrinkle resistance, thermal and water-vapour resistance etc., and in particular antimicrobial treated textiles, which are relevant for those textile or clothing products that are in direct contact with the human body and wheelchair.  In recent years, increase in awareness on the eco-toxicological considerations has been introduced. Therefore, the development of eco-friendly and natural antimicrobial finishes of textiles, and their implementation into the clothing products has a great research potential.

The proposed project would be focused on (1) development of antimicrobial textiles (woven and knitted fabrics, nonwovens), (2) development of antimicrobial textile products and multifunctional clothes for wheelchair users (these users could also be elderly people, infants, etc.) and (3) by using the virtual prototyping the development of personalized multifunctional clothes products intended to individual wheelchair user to act as a prevention and curative for health problem.

Keywords (up to 5)

Multifunctional clothes, antimicrobial textiles, virtual prototyping, wheelchair users

Envisaged partners sought

Research and testing institutes, universities, companies producing textiles and clothes.

Contact data

(Name/Surname, Organization, email)

Andreja Rudolf

Institute of Engineering Materials and Design, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maribor, Slovenia

Email: andreja.rudolf@um.si