Switching fibers for textiles
A method of forming a color-changing fiber that can be incorporated into fabrics and other woven materials. The color changing fibers include an annular wall and a conductive wire axially extending through the annular wall, a core strand surrounded by the annular wall and extending axially through a central portion of the fiber, and an encapsulated electro-optic medium disposed on a surface of the core strand.
1. A method of making a flexible color-changing fiber comprising:
coating at least a portion of a surface of a conductive core strand with capsules that encapsulate an electro-optic medium comprising a non-polar solvent and first and second charged pigment particles, wherein the first and second charged pigment particles have charge and color differences from each other, and;
inserting the coated conductive core strand through a preform;
inserting a conductive wire through the preform; and
drawing down the preform to form a fiber comprising an annular wall, such that the conductive wire extends axially through the annular wall and the conductive core strand extends axially through a central portion of the fiber.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of drying the capsules that encapsulate the electro-optic medium on the surface of the conductive core strand prior to inserting the capsule-coated conductive core strand into the preform.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the drawing step is performed with a draw tower.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a plurality of conductive wires are inserted through the preform.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the annular wall comprises a light-transmissive polymeric material.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the polymeric material comprises polycarbonate.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the flexible color-changing fiber comprises a substantially rectangular cross section.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the flexible color-changing fiber comprises a substantially circular cross section.
9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of coating at least a portion of the surface of the conductive core strand with a semi-conductive material prior to coating the conductive core strand with the capsules that encapsulate the electro-optic medium.
10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of coating at least a portion of the capsules that encapsulate the electro-optic medium with a light-transmissive semi-conductive material prior to inserting the coated conductive core strand through the preform.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the conductive wire comprises a metal selected from the group consisting of tungsten, copper, nickel, aluminum, stainless steel, gold, silver, alloys thereof, and combinations thereof.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the conductive core strand comprises a metal selected from the group consisting of tungsten, copper, nickel, aluminum, stainless steel, gold, silver, alloys thereof, and combinations thereof.