What Is Conductive Yarn?
Conductive yarn is an organic conductive fiber made of stainless steel fiber or other conductive fiber blended with ordinary fiber. It can make the static electricity accumulated on the human body disappear quickly. In the past, it was used to make all kinds of anti-static suit. The properties of conductive yarn vary greatly due to different materials. Nowadays, the most popular conductive yarns are silver plated conductive fiber and thunderon conductive fiber.
The biggest advantage is that it can be dyed with high strength (can be used alone) and high cost performance. Its typical industrial application fields include: semiconductor, petrochemical, electronics, medicine, life science and technology; the conductive fiber also has many applications in the field of daily life, such as sportswear, casual wear, high-grade suit lining, baby products, pregnant women’s products, underwear, pajamas, etc. The conductive fiber has a good effect on improving the quality of industrial production and the quality of people’s life.
Main Materials of Conductive Yarn
- Stainless steel filament: Stainless steel wire drawing is a kind of metal processing technology. It is the most popular surface treatment technology in the stainless steel and aluminum products industry. It is the wire drawing effect treatment of stainless steel and aluminum products.
- Silver fiber: the original silver fiber production technology is based on nylon 6, using electroless silver plating technology to form a silver coating on the surface of nylon fiber, thus forming fiber silver. This kind of electrical conductivity is hundreds of times better than that of metals.
- Copper fiber: copper sulfide micro particle composite is deposited on nylon precursor by chemical method. The resistance is between 101 and 103 power. Due to the characteristics of copper, the product has excellent antibacterial, deodorizing and far-infrared functions.
Application of Conductive Yarn
- At the beginning, conductive yarn was mainly used for high-precision processing of weapons and nuclear radiation protection and other military purposes. After the cold war, the use of conductive yarn has gradually turned to civilian use. Even today, conductive yarn is still an indispensable part of military equipment. For example, the British Army’s 2012 new smart clothing will be woven directly from conductive yarn, replacing the heavy batteries carried in the past.
The fiber of the new smart clothes is not afraid of fracture, and can re-establish a connection mode even after being damaged. New fibers are incorporated into vests, shirts, backpacks, gloves and even helmets. The conductive yarn is put on the body to provide a single and centralized power supply for soldiers to charge the equipment.
- Conductive fiber is the most important material for making touch screen gloves. Thunderon conductive fiber is very popular in the field of touch screen gloves because of its effects of electricity removal, antibacterial, deodorization, heat storage, electromagnetic wave absorption and intelligent heating. Silver plated conductive yarn, once popular for a time, is being phased out in the touch screen glove industry.
- With the more mature of conductive yarns technology, conductive yarn is also popular in the civil clothing industry. In 2012, electronic heating knitted clothing is through one-time knitting technology combined with conductive yarns. Under the special structure and density of knitted fabric, the fabric resistance can be calculated through analysis formula, so as to set different temperature of the fabric, and can be set at different positions and different areas at the same time.
Thunderon
Thunderon is a conductive fiber, which belongs to acrylic fiber. It is an organic conductive fiber formed by a very thin layer of digenite (Cu9S5) on the surface of nylon fiber. In September 2012, the Toucher R&D team launched a new generation of Thunderon conductive fiber technology belonging to the Chinese. In addition to the original sterilization, static electricity neutralization and malodor elimination effects, the new conductive fiber also has the function of absorbing electromagnetic waves and intelligent heating.