AN Ilkley company has won the race to invent the world's first 'intelligent' fabric.

WRONZ EuraLab Ltd, based in Little Lane, has made a major breakthrough in modern technology by designing a special 'intelligent' fabric that can detect or monitor movement in a variety of conditions.

And their world-beating research has led to a grant of almost £300,000 from the Government to develop it further.

The new material, which has taken two years to develop could be used to aid athletes, motorists and hospital patients.

Research leader Steven Leftly said: "The technology was invented here along with a company called SOFTswitch Ltd.

"We have been working on the 'intelligent' fabric for about two years. It was part of a five-year project on smart textiles. It is a broad programme of manufacturing with textiles and electronic devices.

"In this particular area we are the leading company in the UK and globally there have been a few universities looking at intelligent material but we developed it. I have been to talks on it in New York and we are been contacted by people from across the world interested in it.

"There is definitely a future in this as it is the first invention of this kind in the textile industry."

The textile combines a unique pressure sensing fabric technology called SOFTswitch. These sensor fabrics do not contain any wires or hard elements.

It will mean that air bags in cars would be able to sense the weight of each passenger so safety could be improved.

Athletes could avoid injury by using specially designed sports garments to sense excessive movement and stretching of the material.

Hospital patients could soon be sleeping on intelligent bed sheets that could monitor their movements helping to reduce bedsores and other problems.

The Department of Trade and Industry has funded a £280,000 project to enable WRONZ EuraLab Ltd to further develop the high-tech performance sensor fabrics.

DTI Minister Douglas Alexander said: "I am pleased that the DTI have been able to help this innovative company.

"Companies like this are helping Britain to be at the forefront of manufacturing technology showing that partnerships between industry, Government and the academic world can help improve productivity and competitiveness."

The Ilkley firm has eight staff and is based in a textiles research laboratory. Mr Leftly is hoping to develop the fabric at low cost and locally.

"The technology will be commercial in volume and will be competitive with the electric industry prices but it will be low cost," he said. "Once it is up and running it will go to a mass market and could be used in the medical industry to develop pressure mats, bandages and beds.

"We invented it and we will license it out to manufacturers around the UK and some will be in Bradford as we already have some manufacturing partners in Bradford.

"The DTI approached us as they were specifically interested in hi-tech textiles. The project with them will help us to improve the intelligent fabric so we can make it increase its capability."

The company has a 12-month contract with the DTI ending in January 2003, when the results from this year's investigations will be published.

This is not the first breakthrough the firm has worked on. Already it has discovered a textile which omits light and a fabric which stores energy from light solar cell fabrics.

The Innovation Budget is a Department of Trade and Industry initiative for projects displaying innovation, collaboration and enhanced competitiveness.

The Wronz project will include other industrial collaborators with academic input being provided by the University of Durham's optical and electro-active materials research group.