Jiangsu Textile Research Institute Inc.

Conductive yarn, or conductive filament, is a functional fiber with conductive properties made by a certain proportion of metal fibers or other conductive fibers and ordinary fibers through blending, intersection, network, and other technical means.

Conductive yarn can make the static electricity accumulated on the human body quickly disappear, used in the past to make anti-static clothing. Conductive yarn due to different materials and processes, has very different, the biggest advantage is dyeing, high strength, cost-effective, wide range of applications, to improve the quality of industrial production, improve the quality of life, promote a great role.

The selection of conductive yarn is to use its conductive function to make functional textiles with anti-static and artificial intelligence properties. Therefore, its conductive function is the first, followed by mechanical properties, the third is processing properties, and the fourth is aesthetic properties.

Civil use

Touch screen gloves: With the popularity of touch screens, touch screen gloves have also risen. The capacitive touch screen is a transparent layer of special metal conductive material affixed to the glass surface.   When the finger touches the metal layer, the capacitance of the contact will change, so that the frequency of the oscillator connected to it will change, and by measuring the frequency change, the touch position can be determined to obtain information. Conductive yarn is the most important material for making touchscreen gloves.

Heating knitwear: Electronic heating knitwear is through a one-time molding knitting technology combined with conductive yarn, under the special structure and density of the knitted fabric, through the analysis formula to calculate the fabric resistance, so that the fabric can be set to emit different temperatures, and can be set in multiple different positions and different areas at the same time.

Anti-radiation anti-static textiles: Conductive fabrics of conductive fibers have excellent electrical and thermal conductivity, shielding and absorbing electromagnetic waves, and are widely used in anti-static textiles and anti-electromagnetic radiation textiles.

Industrial use:

Electronic and semiconductor industry：Conductive yarns also have important applications in the electronics and semiconductor industry, such as packaging materials used in the manufacture of electrostatic sensitive devices to prevent damage to the devices by static electricity.

‌Petrochemical and other industrial applications ‌ : In the petrochemical industry and other fields, conductive yarn is used to make anti-static clothing and protective equipment to ensure the safety of workers and the normal operation of equipment.

Military use:

Conductive yarn was initially used primarily for military purposes, such as high-precision processing and nuclear radiation protection.   Modern military uniforms are woven into conductive fibers that use human kinetic energy conversion technology to collect and store energy to power built-in electronics. New fibers are incorporated into vests, shirts, backpacks, gloves, and even helmets.

Future prospects:

Smart flexible wearable textiles: Wearable textiles are flexible electronic components implanted into the interior of textiles so that sensors, flexible textile switches, flexible electronic circuit boards, conductive yarns, and textiles are integrated, plus ordinary components, high-tech sensors, monitors, etc. Given the convenience, comfort, washable resistance, and sensitivity required by smart wearable devices, further optimizing the sensitivity and durability of flexible conductive yarns, as well as the combination of textile materials and conductive materials is the main development direction of smart flexible wearable products.