Natural fibre production was perfected in the Industrial Age (1775-1850). Synthetic fibre production fuelled developments in the textile industry during the Chemical Age (1870-1980). Now, barely a decade into the Information Age, some equally momentous shifts look to be on the horizon, according to a new report published in Technical Textile Markets.

According to Technical Textile Markets, these shifts will result from the convergence of developments in four key areas: information technology, biotechnology, nanoscale manufacturing techniques, and new materials drawn from sustainable resources.

On the information technology side, US-based Venture Development Corporation (VDC) estimates that global shipments of wearable computers exceeded US$100 mn in 2002, and that by 2006 the market will be worth more than US$563 mn.

Driving this growth will be the expanding use of wearable computers in vertical markets, as the benefits of true hands-free computing and real-time access to information have an impact on profits, cost savings, and improved customer satisfaction.

VDC believes that research and development will lead to the establishment of a viable market for "smart fabrics"' or interactive textile wearable products by 2006. The market will comprise users in the military, the medical sector, public safety, sports, and outdoor activities.

Developments in this area are already moving at a rapid pace. France Télécom's glass fibre panel display technology means that clothes will be able to carry moving images, with specially developed software enabling them to be changed daily over the Internet.

This remarkable development looks set to provide garment makers with a novel way of raising the added value of their products. For those in control of this technology, a boom equal to that in mobile phones over the past decade seems possible.

Smart clothing with the ability to collect and transmit biomedical or other data to remote locations-wirelessly and unobtrusively-is already here. Products such as the Sensatex Smart Shirt and VivoMetrics' LifeShirt are already helping researchers to develop future generations of heart failure devices with new diagnostic and therapeutic features.

As far as biotechnology and nanotechnology are concerned, predictions by scientists suggest that future developments could make it possible to alter the basic characteristics of almost any substance. From a commercial viewpoint, such developments would enable manufacturers to tailor their products and product performance characteristics exactly to the needs of their customers.

Exciting prospects for new and improved fibres are also emerging from the application of biotechnology to the cultivation of soya, corn and cotton crops. The US Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST), a non-profit consortium of scientists, has recently released a comprehensive report detailing the environmental safety and commercial benefits of such technology.

But it is the harnessing of nanotechnology that looks set to be truly revolutionary. Nanotechnology has been defined as "the thorough three-dimensional structural control of materials, processes and devices at the atomic scale".

The potential applications of nanoengineered products, it is said, are virtually limitless. It has been claimed, for example, that, using nanotechnology, a material could be developed which is ten times as strong and as durable as steel for the same mass.

Nanotechnology is already being used to produce new and improved products in the fibre and textile related industries. Nanocoatings applied to fabrics have already led to the commercialisation of clothing which is 100% water-repellent.

Making accurate predictions of what is and what is not possible, however, is difficult. The US National Science Foundation has predicted that the US market for nanotechnology products and services could reach US$1 trn by 2015. But sensational claims and hyperbole have created a smoke screen which makes it difficult to assess nanotechnology's true potential.

The need for renewable materials drawn from sustainable resources may have just as much impact on the textile industry as nanotechnology. Certainly, the industry's reliance on materials manufactured from petrochemicals developed in the Chemical Age can not continue indefinitely.

In fact, the need to make fibre manufacture sustainable is already being addressed. Cargill Dow's corn-derived PLA polymer is the result of development work on biotechnology. Traditionally, synthetic fibres have been obtained by utilising carbon derived from non-renewable petroleum. But Cargill Dow's technology utilises renewable resources in the form of carbon removed from the air by plants during photosynthesis.

Cargill Dow has recently gone into full scale production of PLA polymer at a 140,000 tons per annum production plant in the US state of Nebraska. And the company plans to build at least three more similar plants-probably outside the USA-over the next three years. This could mean that some 560,000 tons of a completely new polymeric fibre could be on the market by 2006.

This is just one indication of the momentous changes that will take place in the fibre and textile industry in the not too distant future.