Electronic textiles (e-textiles) are a branch of wearable technology based on integrating smart systems into textile materials creating different possibilities, transforming industries, and improving individuals’ quality of life. E-textiles hold vast potential, particularly for use in personal protective equipment (PPE) by embedding sensors and smart technologies into garments, thus significantly enhancing safety and performance. Although this branch of research has been active for several decades now, only a few products have made it to the market. Achieving durability, reliability, user acceptance, sustainability, and integration into current manufacturing processes remains challenging. High levels of reliability and user acceptance are critical for technical textiles, such as those used in PPE. While studies address washing reliability and field tests, they often overlook end user preferences regarding smart textiles. This paper presents a narrow fabric-based e-textile system co-developed by engineers, garment and textiles’ manufacturers, and firefighters. It highlights material choices and integration methods, and evaluates the system’s reliability, sustainability, and user experience, providing comprehensive insights into developing and analyzing e-textile products, particularly in the PPE field.

Due to constant advancements in materials research, conductive textile-based materials have been used increasingly in textile-based wearables. However, due to the rigidity of electronics or the need for their encapsulation, conductive textile materials, such as conductive yarns, tend to break faster around transition areas than other parts of e-textile systems. Thus, the current work aims to find the limits of two conductive yarns woven into a narrow fabric at the electronics encapsulation transition point. The tests consisted of repeated bending and mechanical stress, and were conducted using a testing machine built from off-the-shelf components. The electronics were encapsulated with an injection-moulded potting compound. In addition to identifying the most reliable conductive yarn and soft–rigid transition materials, the results examined the failure process during the bending tests, including continuous electrical measurements.

The current work presents a testing machine built from off-the-shelf components to test for conductive yarns’ (or textiles’) durability to repeated bending that can occur during general wear-and-tear or domestic washing procedures. The testing method is explained with an example and results, comparing two different conductive yarns weaved into polyester-based narrow fabric.