Scaled up manufacturing of integrated e-textile sensors

ECS的电子纺织品研究已经证明了将柔性电子电路无形地集成在织物中的可行性，方法是将电路放置在纱线的芯内，或者将它们单独编织到纺织品中。然而，迄今为止所做的工作使用手工编织设备，并且布线互连线是手动完成的。这与高速自动织机不兼容，并将该技术限制在更昂贵的利基应用中。该项目将开发制造工艺，使电路能够集成为工业纺织品制造工艺的一部分。挑战包括可靠地将电路安装在载体纱线上，定义电路位置，监控和检测电路位置，自动化互连制造，从而实现复杂的多电路设计。多个传感器电路将在一个纺织品运行中演示，纺织品将用于构建一个基层服装，该服装包括多个无线惯性测量传感器，这些传感器不可见地嵌入织物中，位于关键位置，并连接到单个电源。这项工作将得到与电子纺织工程新兴技术RAEng主席相关的消耗品和差旅预算的支持，并将受益于纺织行业（Bower Roebuck）内的合作，后者将提供开发生产线的机会。

E-textiles research with ECS has demonstrated the feasibility of integrating flexible electronic circuits invisibly within a fabric by placing the circuits within the core of a yarn or by weaving them separately into the textile. However, the work done to date uses hand weaving equipment and routing interconnecting wires is done manually. This is not compatible with high speed automated weaving machines and restricts the technology to more expensive niche applications. This project will develop manufacturing processes that enable circuits to be integrated as part of an industrial textile manufacturing process. Challenges include reliably mounting circuits on carrier yarns, defining circuit location, monitoring and detecting circuit location, automating the fabrication of interconnections thereby enabling complex multi-circuit designs to be realised. Multiple sensor circuits will be demonstrated in a single textile run and the textile will be used to build a base layer garment that includes multiple wireless inertial measurement sensors, invisibly embedded within the fabric and positioned at key locations and connected to a single power supply. The work will be supported by the consumables and travel budget associated with the RAEng Chair in Emerging Technologies in E-Textiles Engineering and will benefit from collaborations within the textiles industry (Bower Roebuck) who will provide access to developmental production lines.