Two Switzerland produced technical textile products are among the eight winners of the Techtextil Innovation Awards announced on day-1 at Techtextil .

The first product to win an award in the ‘New Product’ category is the textile-based ECG belt, a product made in cooperation between the Swiss Federal Materials Testing and Research Establishment and industry.

According to Swiss Textiles, a trade body, this belt enables the wearer’s cardiac frequency to be measured accurately over a period of several days with and without movement.

The sensor fitted in these belts has been made by Forster Rohner Textile Innovations and other Swiss companies involved in this project are Unico Swiss Tex GmbH, Serge Ferrari AG and Schiller AG.

The second product ‘Infinite Display’ won an award in the ‘New Concept’ category and the concept was developed by Switch Embassy, based on the e-broidery technology of Forster Rohner.

The washable textile display incorporating around 1000 LEDs forms text and image animations which can be retrieved or generated with a smartphone app.

Fourteen member companies and partner organisations are presenting their innovative technical textiles products at the Swiss Pavilion in hall 3.1, stand B-24 at Techtextil 2015.

“Swiss companies supply a whole range of innovative products and services in the field of technical textiles which are used worldwide in many different areas,” Swiss Textiles said in a press release.

These include medical technology, the vehicles and transport sector, home textiles and sports as well as the construction industry.

For many years, the Swiss industry has been reporting growth in exports of technical textiles with exports rising by 8.2 per cent in 2014 and overall value of exports reaching 605 million francs.

“These are absolute high tech products which are used in niche areas and are typified by a high level of innovation, functionality, quality and services,” Swiss Textiles added. (AR)