Fibers having electrically conductive core and color-changing coating

A method of manufacturing a color-changing product, the method comprising:

• manufacturing a plurality of color-changing fibers including:
• loading a polymeric material and a thermochromic pigment material into a fiber fabrication machine that includes an extruder, a melt pump, and a spinneret;
• operating the extruder to provide a first molten mixture of the polymeric material and the thermochromic pigment material to the melt pump;
• providing a volume of the molten mixture to the spinneret with the melt pump;
• and
• operating the spinneret to coat an electrically conductive core with an inner coating layer of the first molten mixture to provide a color-changing fiber;
• coating the color-changing fiber with a second molten mixture to form an outer coating layer over the inner coating layer, wherein the outer coating layer is configured to activate at a first temperature threshold and the inner coating layer is configured to activate at a second temperature threshold that is higher than the first temperature threshold, wherein a first temperature at or above the first temperature threshold is configured to cause the outer layer to transition from an opaque state to an at least partially transparent state to expose the inner layer, and wherein a second temperature at or above the second temperature threshold is configured to cause the inner layer to transition from a first opaque state to at least one of a second, different opaque state or a third, at least partially transparent state;
• arranging the plurality of color-changing fibers to provide at least a portion of a color-changing product;
• and
• ultrasonically welding at least a sub-portion of the portion to form a weld that electrically connects the electrically conductive core of two or more of the plurality of color-changing fibers through the coatings thereof.