Textile Conductive Thread with Permanent and Uniform Electrical Properties in the High-OHM Range

Abstract

Conductive yarn materials are the basic requirement for the production of heating textiles. In the project, conductive yarn materials with uniform and permanent electrical resistances in the high-ohm range (1-1000 kΩ/m) were developed. The electrical resistances thus achieved in the high-ohm range have a small variation of less than 10 % over 1m and also over 2cm yarn sections, which enables the use of the developed conductive yarns in heating textile surfaces which can be freely cut. The basis is the developed coating technology that involves a polymer coating with conductive additives. Carbon particles and intrinsically conductive polymers were investigated as conductive additives. The conductive polymer coating was applied using coating processes in a laboratory setup and also a pilot plant for up to 4 individual threads with a subsequent thermal activation process.