The card wire (10) has a base (12), a card wire passing through the base, held in place by the base and protruding on a first side of the base (12) The needle (11) and the electrically conductive layer (13, 15) are arranged on the second side of the base (12) facing away from the first side, so that the layer is in contact with the clothing needle (11) in the Electrical contacts are made on the second side of the base (12). Alternatively the layer (15) is an integral part of the base (12) and the needles (11) pass through the layer in contact with the layer (15). The layer (15) has a textile fabric (15) with electrically conductive threads which are electrically coupled to each other directly or indirectly via the clothing needles (11), which extend along or transversely to the clothing (10), said The card clothing has electrically conductive contact elements (20), so that they are in electrical contact with the layers (13, 15), so that the contact sections are electrically coupled to all wires. The contact element (20) has a connection section (16), which is designed for electrical contact with an external element (50). The flat strips (10, 20, 30) have a clothing carrier (30) comprising a holding section and an electrically conductive clothing-connecting section (20) forming the outer element (50) and in said clothing carrier ( 30) Card clothing (10) held in a fixed position. The spinning preparation machine has such a flat strip (10, 20, 30), a flat strip support (70) for holding the flat strip (10, 20, 30) and a flat strip-contact section (3) , which is designed to be electrically coupled to the clothing-connecting section (20) when the flat strips (10, 20, 30) are mounted on the flat strip holder (70).