A stick of yarn that seems ordinary

Not only thinner than hair,

But also has conductive effect,

Can be used together with sensors and electronic devices,

Collect physiological signals from the human body,

Seems like an unlikely science-fiction scene,

But has become a reality already.

What is conductive yarn

Conductive yarn is also called conductive spun yarn or conductive filament, is a kind of functional fiber with conductive functions which is made of metal fibers, or other conductive fibers together with ordinary fibers by blending, plying, interlacing or other technical methods.

Conductive yarn can quickly dissipate static electricity that accumulates on the human body, and was often used to making anti-static clothing in the past. Conductive yarn varies greatly in performance because it could be made of different materials and taken different workmanship. Its biggest advantage is that it can be dyed, with high strength, with cost-effective performance, and has a wide range of applications. It plays a significant role in improving industrial production quality and improving human’s life quality.

Category of conductive yarn

It can be divided into below types due to made of different conductive fibers:

Typical application of conductive yarn

We choose to use conductive yarn because it can be applied in making functional textiles with anti-static electricity and artificial intelligence performance because of its conductive function. Therefore, its conductive function comes first, followed mechanical properties, then processing performance, finally aesthetic performance.

Military use

The new intelligent military uniform fabric employs technologies such as supple fabric batteries and human kinetic energy conversion. Supple batteries are woven into or covered on the surface of the military uniform, and energy conversion and storage devices are added on the uniform. They collect and store solar energy, or convert human kinetic energy, thermal energy into electrical energy when soldiers are proceeding day time activities. And then, conductive fibers that woven into the military uniform will transmit electrical power and provide electrical power for the built-in electronic devices. The new intelligent military uniform is woven with conductive yarn, which abandons unwieldy batteries and not afraid of breakage. Even if it is damaged, it can also establish a new connection mode. The new kind of fiber are integrated into vests, shirts, backpacks, gloves, and even helmets.

Daily life use

Touch screen gloves:With the popularity of touch screens, touch screen gloves have also emerged. A capacitive touch screen is a kind of special metal conductive substance that is transparent and attached on the surface of glasses. When human’s fingertip touches the metal layer, the capacitance of the contact area will change, then making the oscillator’s frequency changes which connected to the capacitive touch layer. By measuring the change of frequency, the touch position can be determined to obtain information. Conductive yarn is the most important material to make touch screen gloves.

Heating knitted clothing:Electronic heating knitted clothing combines one-time forming knitting technology and conductive yarn. It is able to set different temperatures which generated by the fabric, and the temperature could be set at multiple different positions and areas simultaneously by calculation of fabric’s resistance through analytical formulas under special structure and density of knitted fabrics.

Anti radiation and anti-static electricity textiles:Conductive fabrics which made of conductive fibers have excellent functions such as conductivity, thermal conductivity, shielding from electromagnetic waves and absorption of electromagnetic waves, and are widely used in anti-static electricity textiles, anti electromagnetic radiation textiles, and so on.