The use of hot air welding technologies for manufacturing e-textile trasmission lines

This study investigated the potential possibilities for obtaining textile transmission lines by incorporating conductive yarns into fabrics through a hot air welding process. Hot air sealing for obtaining textile transmission line was conducted using 100 % PES woven fabric, GoreTex^® waterproof welding tape and seven different conductive yarn types, in order to form different textile transmission lines. By manufacturing using a hot air seam-sealing machine different welding parameters like welding temperature, pressure and velocity were chosen in order to find an optimal welding process for the selected fabric samples. The effects of welding parameters were examined on the electrical properties of the textile transmission lines in terms of conductivity and signal-transferring capability. Besides, the bending properties and morphologies of the welded textile transmission lines were also characterized and subjective evaluations of the appearances of textile transmission lines like puckering and the visual appearances of the surface sides of the welded textile transmission lines. The results based on conductivity and signal transferring capabilities were really promising for the manufacturing of etextile transmission lines via hot air welding technology. Moreover, the results based on bending properties showed that the lower the welding parameters the less rigid the hot air welded textile transmission lines became after welding all the used conductive yarns. Further, suitable combinations of welding parameters with the used components of textile transmission assured suitable visual appearances of the welded textile transmission lines. In this respect this research work offers a usage for hot air welding technology regarding the formations of textile transmission lines which are reliable and durable in functionality while still preserving the textiles’ aspects.