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Researchers at the Electronics Department and the Wearable Computing Laboratory at the ETH in
Zürich produced a plain woven textile structure consisting of polyester yarns that are twisted with one
copper thread.
Fig. 6 Woven fabric with metal yarns [25]
They examined different woven fabric structures to be used as textile transmission lines in wearable
computing applications. They altered the structure by inserting the copper fibre either in one or two
directions and by different yarn finenesses [25].
Bekitherm® by Bekaert Fibre Technologies is a woven fabric, a knitted fabric or a needle felt
consisting of 100 % metal fibres or of a mixture of metal fibres and a natural or a synthetic fibre. It is
used in the production process of complex glass forms (car windows, bottles, TV tubes) and
saucepans from stainless steel. It is also incorporated in plane engines to protect components against
the heat and the vibrations of the engine block [10].
The Danish company Chr. Dalsgaard Project Development ApS works with the development of
weaving electronics into fabrics, electronic conductors in clothing, operating panels in textiles (soft
keyboards, displays etc.) and micro-sensors. The company serves predominantly knowledge in the
field of electronic textiles and works through joint ventures with textile companies. They developed, for
instance, conductive ribbons for different purposes, such as loudspeakers and microphones. The
conductive yarn they use is a copper thread, plated with a silver layer and coated with polyester [26].
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