Capacitive Strain Sensors Inkjet-printed on PET Fibers for Integration in Industrial Textile

We report on printed strain sensors on several meters long PET fibers for integration in textile at large scale. The sensors are made by locally inkjet printing capacitive transducers on cylindrical PET fibers used in industrial textiles. Sensor measurements were performed for strains up to 1%. 10 meters long functionalized PET fibers were woven with metallic interconnect fibers using large scale industrial weaving machine and resulted in a 1 m2 smart textile demonstrator. Applications are foreseen in predictive maintenance of industrial textiles and in the automotive industry.