The Technological Institute of Textile & Sciences (TIT&S) students claim to have developed a lightweight jacket — it weighs only 530gm — to keep army jawans warm even in sub-zero temperatures.
They have developed the jacket keeping in mind Indian Army jawans posted in Siachen, the world’s highest battlefield. Extreme temperatures — as low as -55°C — have claimed the lives of hundreds of soldiers in Siachen. The Army has long relied on imported wearables, with delivery time and fluctuating foreign exchange rates often messing up the procurement. Besides, conventional jackets are stuffed with bird feathers or use a battery-dependent heating system, which make them bulky. The weight bogs down the soldiers, who have to carry heavy weapons and equipment on high altitudes.
The half-sleeve prototype jacket is made of a special thermoelectric generator fabric that can convert the wearer’s body heat into electricity, providing the 2.4 Volts required for the heating layer to work
Saumen Bhattacharya, a faculty member at TIT&S and the students’ mentor, told FactorDaily that their jacket has a unique self-heating mechanism. It has four layers: a waterproof outer layer, an insulating layer, an electric heating layer and an inner layer.
The half-sleeve prototype jacket is made of a special thermoelectric generator (TEG) fabric that can convert the wearer’s body heat into electricity, providing the 2.4 Volts required for the heating layer to work.
Source: FactorDaily