Development of Textile-Based Pressure Sensors Using Piezoresistive Ink
Project no. 23374 · Status: Kapanmış (Yayın bekleniyor) · 2022
Summary
<p>With the increasing use of wearable electronics in many product groups, the importance of using materials that are lightweight, flexible, and comfortable in these garments has become a significant research topic. Therefore, research is being conducted on the development of textile-based sensors produced from the structures of conductive textiles.</p><p>In this project, flexible textile-based pressure sensors have been developed. In the developed sensor structures, piezoresistive materials requiring low voltage and less complex electronic circuitry have been used. Piezoresistive materials can be produced from different structures such as film, fabric, foam, and ink. In this project, piezoresistive ink and conductive ink have been used in creating the pressure sensor. Ink structures are particularly suitable for pressure mapping studies and are also low-cost materials since they can be applied to rigid or flexible surfaces using various printing methods according to the desired printing template. The inks have been applied to different textile surfaces with foam and PUR (polyurethane) coatings using film printing technique. The obtained sensors were first tested with a multimeter and then with a universal testing machine under regularly increasing and decreasing loads. The sensors produced within the scope of the project are capable of detecting the presence of applied pressure. However, issues with measurement repeatability in the sensor structures have been observed. It is believed that future studies should focus on this issue. It has been considered that the degradation of the piezoresistive properties of the ink used during the fixation process might be due to the temperature. Although the temperatures have been determined with temperature stabilization in mind during production, it is recommended to re-examine these temperatures and revise these production parameters due to the observed changes in piezoresistive properties, and to determine new parameters. The reason for not being able to carry out these activities directed at the obtained result within the current project scope is due to the expiration of the shelf life of the materials procured for the project, and therefore, it is planned to conduct these examinations in future projects.</p>