The decline of the U.S. textile and garment industries is all too apparent. As recently as 1980, the apparel industry accounted for nearly 10 percent of all U.S. manufacturing jobs and employed more than 1 million workers; it now employs about one-third that number.
While the low-tech segment of the industry has been left for dead, the United States is not finished with textiles—
at least not with fabrics that give the wearer something extra. While few manufacturers can justify making an ordinary shirt in this country, this humble industry leaves a great deal of upside for technological innovators.
Low-cost-labor centers in emerging markets are not in a position—yet—to invest in the research and development required to produce the materials for a shirt that “never wears out” nor one that monitors blood pressure. Nor will those countries that depend on high-volume production be willing to manufacture on the small scale necessary to try new technologies. But a number of U.S. companies are now making these intelligent textiles. These fabrics are embedded or treated with substances that have been broken down into tiny particles measured in nanometers: one-
billionth of a meter, or the width of three to five atoms.
Small Advances
Manufacturers are using nanotechnology to change the properties of these substances. As each particle becomes smaller, the ratio between surface area and volume is increased, bringing different atoms to the fore. This can fundamentally change a substance. The U.S. government, the biggest single backer of this research, invested $1.6 billion in it last year. Private enterprises worldwide invested another $2 billion. While fabric applications have seen a relatively small portion of this spending, they seem likely to capture a greater amount going forward. According to estimates based on data from the Department of Commerce and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, textile-related technology will become a $450 million industry by 2006.
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