Launderability of Conductive Polymer Yarns Used for Connections of E-textile Modules: Mechanical Stresses

Abstract

E-textile is one of the emerging fields of current era and some dynamic and state of the art products are already available on the market. E-textile products are facing problems related to reliability and difficulty in laundering. This paper is focused on the standards to be proposed for washability of e-textile structures after in depth analysis of wash process. Mechanical forces acting on the e-textile structure during washing are considered the most damaging among all others. Well known textile benchmark tests such as Martindale abrasion and pilling box are supposed to have similar mechanical damages on e-textile structures as in washing. As E-textiles relay on flexible connections (textile motherboard) within textile structure realized by conductive yarns, they are the main target of our investigations. The resultant change in electrical resistance after mechanical tests on silver plated conductive yarns used as connection threads in e-textile structures is co-related with washing results to propose equivalent damage effect without washing of samples.