Polysufonamide/Stainless Steel Woven Fabrics: Manufacturing Techniques, Flame Retardance and Electromagnetic Shielding Effectiveness

Abstract

In order to make conductive woven fabrics with electromagnetic shielding effectiveness (EMSE) and flame retardance, polysufonamide (PSA)/stainless steel (SS) core yarn are used as the weft yarns and PSA yarns are used as the warp yarns. The conductive woven fabrics are denoted as SS-60, SS-80, SS-100, SS-120, and SS-140 according to the twist counts of the core yarn, and evaluated in terms of mechanical properties, flame retardance, surface resistivity. The test results show that the best twist of the core yarn is 120 turns/10 cm. SS-60 has the maximum burnt length, while SS-140 has the minimum burnt length. Moreover, the surface resistivity of the PSA/SS woven fabrics is proportional to the twist counts, and the surface resistivity along the warp direction is higher than that along the weft direction. Changing the fabric lamination angle can form a complete shielding network, and the EMSE is significantly increased. For SS-80, SS-100, and SS-120, when they are composed of 4–6 layers with lamination angles of 0°/45°/90°/-45°/0°/45° and 0°/90°/0°/90°/0°/90°, the EMSE is above 40 dB and the shielding effect is above 99.99 % against the incident waves at 2000–3000 MHz. Specifically, SS-120 has the maximum EMSE of 64 dB against incident waves at 2844 MHz.