Conductive, sensorial and luminescent features in textile structures

Abstract:
The TITV - The Institute for Special Textiles and Flexible Materials - is a German textile research institute. Our special capabilities are thread materials, threads with a high level of conductivity and textile properties, special thread constructions (fancy yarns, braiding), possibilities to produce fabrics with these material (weaving, warp knitting, embroidery), textile circuitries based on woven structures, coating technology, textile test laboratory. Furthermore the institute has experiences in the area of medical textiles: monitoring of bodily functions, 3 dimensional fabrics with defined pressure elastic behavior and thermoregulation, textile switches based on matrix structures. In this lecture the current stand of technique and actual developments will be presented. Also examples of conductive structures and their processing possibilities are shown. Textile conductor busses and carrier of ICs show the possibilities of textile micro-structuring. Another field of application of conductive structures is the use in a textile-based keypad or matrices. The galvanic modification improves the electrical properties of the textile structures. Through special coatings luminous / luminescent textiles can be produced. The examples demonstrate the functional properties. All the textiles are primary narrow fabrics or ribbons.