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BAE Systems – Broadsword Spine

Broadsword Spine is BAE Systems’ smart textile demonstrator. It offers both power and data connectivity through an etextile that is inserted as a fabric layer in a garment or piece of equipment. Early work in this field centered around cables inserted into webbing or run through a garment. But this new etextile from intelligent textiles limited is woven from conductive yarns.

As you can, see the etextile is extremely versatile and can be adapted to a wide variety of applications. It is not an outer fabric but rather sandwiched in between layers like an insulation material would be.

A wide variety of low profile ports can be integrated into the design to accommodate different cables. They are placed whe they are needed and sandwich the etextile in order to connect to the integrated power and data grid allowing ports to do double duty.

These ports also mean you can hot swap power sources/batteries as well as devices. Additionally, the elimination of cables lowers snag hazards and improves heat dissipation as the power load is carried over a wider surface area. For you guys who are now terrified you will be electrocuted, relax, the fabric is insulated just like a cable.

www.baesystems.com

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 1st, 2015 at 22:00 and is filed under DSEi, Materials, Power. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Responses to “BAE Systems – Broadsword Spine”

  1. BAP45 says:
    October 1, 2015 at 22:22

    Now this is pretty slick

  2. james says:
    October 2, 2015 at 15:31

    There has been a lot of work recently in the maker community with conductive thread and fabric.I suppose it was just a matter of time before someone slicked it up and packaged it. I would love to see the inner workings of that gear. Seems like spiking into a sheet of fabric would make the port basically in parallel to the circuit and a smart control mechanism could be used to tailor the amperage based on the active ports. Pretty neat concept.

  3. james says:
    October 2, 2015 at 15:49

    There has been a lot of work recently in the maker community with conductive thread and fabric.I suppose it was just a matter of time before someone slicked it up and packaged it. I would love to see the inner workings of that gear. Seems like spiking into a sheet of fabric would make the port basically in parallel .Pretty neat concept.

  4. Jonathan Ferguson says:
    October 2, 2015 at 16:44

    Er, it’s BroadSWORD guys.

    • AlexC says:
      October 2, 2015 at 17:29

      SSD always has the occasional spelling and grammar mistakes when he is posting from his tablet. He (usually) fixes it later when he’s back home.