Conducting Fabric Segmented Yarns Flexibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional conducting fabrics with copper flat bands are rigid, limiting flexibility, and create barriers to uniform material penetration and thermal expansion issues, leading to potential breakages during encapsulation.
Innovation Solution
A conducting fabric with insulated conducting warp yarns and a copper weft yarn that intersects and welds with the warp yarns, allowing for flexible and power-carrying capabilities, with optional microfilaments for increased tensile strength and electromagnetic field cancellation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a copper flat band is applied to provide conducting areas, then electrical conductivity is improved, but flexibility deteriorates due to extreme rigidity
Solution Approach 1:
The continuous copper flat band is segmented into discrete copper yarns that are woven into the fabric structure. These segmented conducting yarns maintain electrical conductivity while allowing the fabric to flex and bend without the rigidity constraints of a continuous flat band.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention creates a composite fabric structure combining insulating base fabric (e.g., glass fiber) with conducting copper yarns. This composite approach integrates conducting elements into the fabric matrix, providing both electrical functionality and mechanical flexibility that neither material alone could achieve.
2Reliability
If a copper flat band is applied to provide conducting areas, then electrical conductivity is improved, but material penetration uniformity deteriorates due to barrier effect
Solution Approach 1:
The continuous flat band is divided into discrete, distributed copper yarns woven throughout the fabric. This segmentation eliminates the barrier effect of a continuous band, allowing resins and other materials to penetrate uniformly across the entire fabric surface while maintaining electrical conductivity through the distributed yarn network.
Solution Approach 2:
The conducting element transitions from a two-dimensional flat band surface to a three-dimensional woven structure integrated within the fabric layers. This dimensional integration allows material penetration from both sides of the fabric without encountering a continuous barrier, achieving uniform impregnation while maintaining conductivity.
3Reliability
If different materials (fabric and solid conducting band) are combined, then conducting functionality is improved, but thermal expansion compatibility deteriorates causing breakages
Solution Approach 1:
The invention creates a composite fabric structure where copper yarns are integrated into the base fabric matrix. This composite construction allows both materials to coexist with their different thermal expansion properties, as the flexible yarn structure can accommodate expansion and contraction without the rigid constraints that cause breakages in flat band configurations.
Solution Approach 2:
The rigid flat band is replaced with flexible conducting yarns that can bend and deform. This flexibility allows the conducting elements to accommodate thermal expansion and contraction of the base fabric without creating stress concentrations that lead to breakages during heating cycles.
4Ease of operation
If copper yarn is used instead of flat band, then flexibility is improved, but electromagnetic emissions worsen due to continuous current flow
Solution Approach 1:
The continuous current path of a flat band is segmented into discrete sections by weaving the copper yarns through the insulating base fabric. This segmentation interrupts the continuous electromagnetic field generation, reducing overall electromagnetic emissions while maintaining flexibility through the woven structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The insulating base fabric, which provides mechanical support, also serves to electrically isolate and screen the copper conducting yarns. This dual function converts the insulating property into a benefit by reducing electromagnetic emissions from the conducting elements while maintaining the flexibility needed for the application.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The fabric achieves flexibility, uniform power distribution, and variable resistance areas, enabling efficient heat production and power delivery while maintaining structural integrity and reducing electromagnetic emissions.
Implementation Method 1
The weft yarn 4 'connects' to the conducting warp yarn 3 by means of welds 5 which can be provided by spot welding, tin welding, welding paste, ultrasound or any other known method
Implementation Method 2
The weft yarn 4 'connects' to the conducting warp yarn 3 by means of welds 5 which can be provided by spot welding, tin welding, welding paste, ultrasound or any other known method
Implementation Method 3
The weft yarn 4 'connects' to the conducting warp yarn 3 by means of welds 5 which can be provided by spot welding, tin welding, welding paste, ultrasound or any other known method
Implementation Method 4
it is possible to provide for the insertion, during weaving, of a microfilament 8 made of glass in the weft, warp, or in both directions, which is hot welded onto the insulated conducting yarn, or on the yarn 2 made of insulating material
Implementation Method 5
the continuous yarn allows to provide a resistive fabric with practically nil electromagnetic emissions. This is due to the fact that the continuous yarn that is woven in at each return runs practically in contact with the forward one; then the loom performs the desired beat and then another forward and return run in contact. With this fabric architecture, the electromagnetic field generated by an electrical cable crossed by a current which moves in one direction is canceled out by the opposite electromagnetic field generated by the subsequent cable (in contact) which is crossed by the same current but in the opposite direction.
Implementation Method 6
the invention relates to a conducting fabric capable of carrying electric power inside it... which are adapted to carry the electric power supply within the fabric 1 itself... the weft yarn 4 is a copper yarn which runs back and forth, weaving in with the warp yarns... allowing areas having a variable resistance which are therefore capable of delivering different power levels
Data Source
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AI summary
A conducting fabric (1), comprising at least two yarns (3) adapted to carry an electric power supply, woven directly during weaving, the yarns (4; 10) of the fabric that intersect the at least two yarns (3) adapted to carry an electric power supply being welded at intersections (5) with the at least two yarns (3) adapted to carry an electric power supply, in order to define areas of the fabric that are adapted to be supplied with power.