Taipei – One of the world’s largest lead wire manufacturers has created an elastic conductor it says marks a breakthrough for smart fabrics.
After two years of research, Maeden has developed an elastic wire capable of enduring water washing and stretching without altering its resistance. Often, smart fabrics have also faced issues where stretching the wire led to resistance variations, resulting in unstable signal reception.
“Despite the attention on smart clothing, manufacturers faced challenges in maintaining stable signal transmission in response to the demands of human movement and clothing washing,” it noted.
In addition, many conductors in the smart fabric market fail to return to their original state after stretching. However, Maeden’s ultra-fine elastic conductors can be stretched up to 50%, and once reaching maximum stretch they completely revert to their initial length.
The conductors have a diameter of approximately 0.2mm, exhibit a resistance of 6.5 ohms/meter.
The company is now advancing toward developing conductors of varying thicknesses and stretch rates to meet the diverse demands of the market. Moreover, Maeden’s reliability tests have received accreditation from numerous renowned international giants, it said. Efforts are underway to develop new verification testing standards such as abrasion resistance, ensuring that elastic conductors for smart apparel achieve practicality and durability.
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