Five textile industry leaders have joined forces to launch HYDRO_BOT, a new technology for moisture management, designed to solve one of the biggest challenges in sports, work and protective clothing: transportation of moisture to match human sweat rates in various climates, conditions and activity levels.

The idea behind the HYDRO_BOT belongs to Osmotex, a Swiss-Norwegian start-up dedicated to developing solutions for electro osmosis for moisture management.

“HYDRO_BOT is the result of ten years of intense research and development in Switzerland. Over the past two years, the development has reached a new level with four strategic partners involved in the development effort. We are confident that HYDRO_BOT will represent a generational advancement in moisture management,” said Trond Heldal, Director of R&D and Operations at Osmotex and the lead researcher.

Production partner

The Swiss leading textile manufacturer Schoeller Textil AG is the production partner for the HYDRO_BOT panels. “The consumer is the central focus of our developments. We want to support people in their work, leisure and sporting activities with intelligent textile products,” commented Siegfried Winkelbeiner, CEO of Schoeller Textil AG.

“For this reason, we develop and produce highly-functional fabrics, knits and innovative textile technologies. We are very excited about the prospects for HYDRO_BOT as we see a great synergy for even smarter textile performance.”

Product development partner

The leading premium sportswear brand KJUS is the primary product development partner and will be the first leading brand to take HYDRO_BOT to market in selected skiwear products planned for the 2018/2019 season.

“KJUS is renowned as the leading innovator in ski-, golf- and lifestyle wear. As such, we teamed up with Osmotex to create an industry changing ski jacket. HYDRO_BOT opens up new levels of skiwear comfort for our product development, and we are excited about the new alpine layering system in the pipeline,” said Nico Serena, CEO of KJUS.

Technology partner

The high-tech wearable technology company Belginova is the technology partner for HYDRO_BOT. The company is providing operating systems and switches for applying the moisture management solution. Belginova will also deliver HYDRO_BOT products through their own brand 30SEVEN.

“Based on many years’ experience of developing car seat heating, I designed the world’s first safe, durable, washable heating system: Novaheat. Now we are very happy to innovate wearable clothing again using HYDRO_BOT as the engine for moisture management,” explained Pol Speleers, co-founder of 30Seven and Belginova.

Materials and technology research

Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, has played a key role in conducting cutting-edge materials and technology research. Together with Osmotex and its three development partners, Empa is now involved in the final development to ensure the necessary durability, washability and performance of HYDRO_BOT under different conditions.

“As the place where innovation starts we are very excited at Empa to contribute to new textile developments like HYDRO_BOT with our in-depth knowhow in materials science and computational simulation and to work with a group of outstanding companies covering the entire value chain of sports and performance clothing,” said Prof Dr Gian-Luca Bona, CEO of Empa.

www.hydrobot.com