Color-changing electrophoretic threads and fibers, and methods and apparatuses for making the same

Abstract

A method and apparatus for fabricating a color-changing thread is described. The method includes providing an aqueous slurry including an encapsulated electrophoretic medium and a binder. The electrophoretic medium includes a first and a second type of electrophoretic particles. The first type of electrophoretic particles have a different charge and color than the second type of electrophoretic particles. The method also includes injecting the aqueous slurry into a fluid reservoir holding an aqueous cross-linker, and forming a hydrogel matrix that entraps the encapsulated electrophoretic medium within a cross-linked binder. The apparatus includes a body housing multiple reservoirs for holding materials used to form color-changing microcapsule threads. Solutions of materials are dispensed simultaneously with a cross-linking agent through a multi-chamber needle form the threads by an ionic cross-linking reaction.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.