SMART FABRICS: A CASE STUDY IN INDUSTRIAL REVIVAL

Abstract

The movements on the world market suffered by the traditional textile industry bring us nowadays to reconsider the rebirth of the textile industry on new coordinates by the concentration of the latest technologies in order to satisfy the more and more demanding requests of the consumer. This paper tries to emphasize the idea that revitalization on a territory where there had been a strong development of a traditional textile industry in the past is possible now by configuring a new industry by means of some leader companies in their field of activity which create and develop new value sources with the advantages of the variant which integrates the latest interdisciplinary technologies, the so-called “key enabling technologies” (KETs), such as the microsystems, the smart materials, nano- and bio-technologies, and photonics. The KETs have a key role in creating the so-called industry of smart fabrics as it is shown in this summary case study for this very new born industry. All these technologies enable the appearance of some products fundamentally new of high interest, which furnish substantial economic advantages and involve industries with which they had no connection in the past. The main vectors in this effort of industrial transformation are the companies which are the best placed on the market of new industrial technologies generally called KETs, which combines the new ideas of economical organization through an intensive use of capital with the sustained effort of research-development, the usage of highly qualified labour force, and their geographical positioning at the points which best respond to their operational requirements. The competitive disadvantages of some countries with respect to the cheap labour force and the supply of raw materials essential for textile industry can be compensated by the re-orientation to the configuration of a new model of smart textiles and finally will contribute to re-launch the economic activity passing through recession, particularly in the areas more prepared from the point of view of high qualification and technical specialization.

Keywords

• KET, smart textiles, reindustrialization, competitiveness