Coats and Osram partner on new garment illumination technology

Coats Signal Active Illumination is made of flexible light guides that draw their energy from a USB power bank

Coats, the world’s leading industrial thread company, is partnering with Osram, the global lighting specialist, to launch Coats Signal Active Illumination to help improve people’s safety and visibility. This is a state-of-the-art washable, lightweight and customisable LED light system designed for application in garments and accessories. Its visibility range is approximately three times more than what retro-reflective products are able to achieve. Coats Signal Active Illumination is made of flexible light guides that draw their energy from a USB power bank, the size of a credit card. It retains a charge for up to eight hours, which as the average length of a work shift, is especially relevant to those wearing it as part of their work wear.

The power bank can be easily unclipped and removed to enable the garment including the LED light system to go through machine washing and drying processes. Adrian Elliott, President (Apparel and Footwear), Coats, said: “Combining our deep expertise in textiles with Osram’s wide technical knowledge of lighting will shape the next generation of high visibility work and active wear. Homogenous illumination in garments will literally power improvements in people’s visibility and therefore also their safety. The potential to extend the range to respond to sensory safety detection, for instance, approaching vehicles, vital signs of the wearer or a sudden fall could create a life-saving product.”

The LED lights are available in a range of colours: amber, blue, green, red, yellow, cool white and warm white which can be used singly or in combinations. There are different settings of permanently on, flashing or soft pulses. Further developments are planned in the form of sensor integration and internet connectivity to add functionality which help further improve people’s safety.

Adarsh Murthy, CEO (Business Segment Industry), Osram, said: “We have a very synergistic partnership with Coats that allows us to create and shape a totally new market. The convergence of two industries, lighting and textiles, with two leading players in this market presents an excellent opportunity for innovation in our quest to make the world a more safer and enjoyable place.”

There are also piping solutions designed for easy integration into garments and accessories. The range consists of retro-reflective perforated piping, mesh piping, and piping integrated into retro-reflective tapes. These offer passive illumination through retro-reflection as well as active illumination in combination with light systems. They also offer a cost-effective manufacturing option for incorporating light systems into existing designs. Coats Signal Active Illumination is a low-voltage device (5V) and complies with the requirements of all relevant standards including CE, RoHS and REACH. The partnership follows a successful pilot with a small group of customers in Germany.

Coats completes acquisition of Pharr HP

The transaction for Coats to acquire Pharr High Performance Yarns (Pharr HP) has been completed. Pharr HP is a market-leading manufacturer of high-performance engineered yarns based in McAdenville, North Carolina, US. It specialises in providing technical yarn solutions to the growing markets of industrial thermal protection, defence and fire service industries. The acquisition of Pharr HP’s manufacturing capabilities and customer base provides further expertise and scale to Coats’ existing personal protection business (part of the performance materials segment). Coats will enhance Pharr HP’s performance by leveraging its extensive textile experience, strong industry connections, existing operational footprint in North America, and strong brand to deliver high-performance solutions for its customers.

Rajiv Sharma, Group Chief Executive, Coats

Rajiv Sharma, Group Chief Executive, Coats, said: “We can draw from our strong track record of successfully integrating and growing acquisitions as we add the operations of Pharr HP to the Coats family. The completion of the transaction means we can now further enhance the expertise and scale of our personal protection business.”

The completion of the transaction on February 10, 2020 follows the announcement in November 2019 that Coats had signed a binding agreement, subject to the receipt of the required regulatory approvals and other completion procedures, to acquire the business and assets of Pharr HP