Flexoo GmbH, Germany
The purpose of the project is to quantitatively pressure, temperature or humidity directly on industrially relevant textile substrates using a combination of a high-performance printed foil sensor and a textile substrate.
The prototype is based on a novel approach to bind printed sensors to textile by the means of conductive stitching.
By this approach, we combine the best of two worlds: conductive fabrics and printed sensors. This combination allows straightforward 3D integration, for example in car seats to detect pressure distribution and/or presence of passengers.
Pressure sensors used by this hybrid integration were optimized to deliver quantitative weigh measurement, with drastically improved performance compared to purely textile-based sensors. Textile integration enables seamless merging of sensors in car seats, without the typical disadvantages of plastic foil-based sensors, “plastic bag noise”, feel,, impermeability and difficulty to conform them to 3D shapes, compared to a textile.
Functionality
We developed a smart textile surface consisting of N pressure sensors stitched and glued to a conductive textile circuit.
The textile circuit is electrically connected to our dedicated sensor readout electronics and our software to display pressure distribution on the functional fabric.
The pressure sensors are quantitative sensors which can be calibrated.
The smart textile is highly deformable, and can be customized to the needed stretchability.
Benefits of the project
- Pressure sensors used by our hybrid integration were optimized to deliver quantitative weigh measurement, with drastically improved performance compared to purely textile-based sensors.
- Textile integration enables seamless merging of sensors in car seats, without the typical disadvantages of plastic foil-based sensors, “plastic bag noise”, feel, impermeability.
- Textile sensors can adapt to practically any 3D shapes, allowing to expand the scope of use of sensors printed on plastic foils
- This very general approach to textile integration could be easily extended to other systems, sensors, heaters, printed batteries, etc.
Target Industry
- Transport industry
- Automotive industry
- Consumer Electronics
- Smart Buildings
- Flooring and heating industry
- Med Tech
Organic & Printed Components
- Conductive path
- Interconnection
- Printed dieelectric / insulator
- Printed sensor
Classical Components
- Dedicated readout electronics
- Computer