Editorial: Where Will Technical Textiles Make a Difference in the Next Ten Years?

Technical textiles, nonwovens and composites continue to be targeted at new applications in response to the world's pressing issues. In the next ten years, technical textiles and nonwovens in the form of filter media will prove to be central to reducing the risk of exposure to airborne viruses and improving outdoor air quality. Also, filter media will play a growing role in protecting data as physical threats in data centres such as airborne contaminants, heat and humidity can cause hardware to malfunction and lead to data losses and costly downtime. Technical textiles and nonwovens will provide new opportunities for manufacturers of electric vehicles (EVs) to meet their environmental sustainability targets. Also, they will help to improve the acoustic and thermal management of EVs, and address noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) issues.

Furthermore, their use in the manufacture of battery separators for EVs will continue to increase. Technical textiles and nonwovens also have potential for growth in the manufacture of gas diffusion layer (GDL) materials, which are performance-critical components in the fuel cells which could be powering vehicles of the future.