WO2018115726A1 - Smart garment including an elastic woven fabric, and electrodes - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a smart garment (1), made of an elastic woven fabric, and including an electrode (2, 3) provided on the surface of the fabric intended for coming into contact with the skin of the user, and a connection circuit (4–7) for connecting said electrode (2, 3) to an electronic device, characterised in that the electrode is made of electrically conductive wires which are woven into the fabric, all or part of said wires extending in one or more sheaths (14–17) formed by selectively weaving non-conductive elastic threads so as to form superimposed and locally separated parallel fabric layers.

Description

 INSTRUMENTAL GARMENT COMPRISING AN ELASTIC WOVEN TEXTILE AND ELECTRODES

Technical area

 The invention relates to the field of the textile industry, and more specifically to the sector of instrumented clothing. It is more particularly clothing incorporating electrodes for monitoring the heart rate of its user. It aims more specifically at a new textile structure, which allows advanced integration of its electrodes, with an improvement in the resistance of the connection of the electrodes during the phenomena of elongation observed during the use of the garment.

Background of the invention

 Instrumented clothing has already been described, in particular in the document WO 2015/101 759 of the Applicant. This document describes garments that are equipped with sensors, and in particular electrodes, attached to one of the faces of the textile forming the garment. The connection of these sensors to the various electronic devices associated with the sensor is via elastic conductor son that walk inside the textile being protected by woven areas so as to form sleeves, as described in the document WO 2016/166457 of the Applicant.

These clothes have some disadvantages, particularly related to the use of an elastic conductive son. Indeed, this type of son is not particularly common, and especially when it must have mechanical strength properties due to the stresses in extension of this type of clothing, and chemical resistance during washing of the garment. Another disadvantage lies in the difficulty of ensuring the connection between the sensors and its supply son. US 2010/0317954 proposes to connect the electrodes by sewing a conductive wire on the electrode. The quality of the electrical contact is very uncertain with this type of connection. The ligation connection, as set forth in EP 1506738, is also not reliable, apart from the fact that it requires very careful preparation operations. A connection by welding is not necessarily appropriate because of the heating it causes near the textile. Conductive adhesive connection may also present risks of disconnection in case of strong mechanical stress. However, the solutions described in these documents have the disadvantage of requiring manual assembly operations, which significantly increase the cost of the garment. Presentation of the invention

 An object of the invention is therefore to obtain an instrumented garment which has enhanced qualities of mechanical and chemical resistance, in particular during stresses in elongation. Another object of the invention and to allow the manufacture of such a garment with a reduced production time, and a limited number of operations.

To do this, the Applicant has designed an instrumented garment, made of an elastic woven fabric, which comprises an electrode on the face of the textile intended to come into contact with the skin of the user. This garment also comprises a connection circuit of this electrode to an electronic device, which can provide various functions such as the shaping of the signal obtained, the power supply of this electrode as well as the transmission of information a central processing device.

According to the invention, this garment is characterized in that the electrode is made of electrically conductive yarns which are woven into the textile, all or part of these yarns extending into one or more sleeves formed by selective weaving. non-conductive elastic threads of the textile, forming superimposed and locally disjointed parallel textile webs. In other words, the invention consists of producing the electrode by weaving, and at the same time constituting the circuit connecting the electrode to its control members. The continuity and the connection between the electrode and its supply circuit is through the continuity of the conductive son which in a first section are part of the electrode, and in another section forms the supply circuit. The simultaneous realization of the electrode and the supply circuit thus eliminates the problems of connection of inserts, shortens the manufacturing time, and greatly increases the reliability of the assembly. In other words, the wires constituting the conductive portion of the electrode have a length such that they extend beyond the electrode and continue to form the connection circuit of the electrode accessible from a remote clothing zone. of the electrode, without any electrical connection that would be a source of risk of loss of electrical continuity.

Advantageously practical, the conductors son that are present in the sleeves are corrugated inside these sleeves, so as to allow the use of weakly or even inelastic conductive thread, inside a textile that is essentially elastic. In other words, the conductive wire used for the manufacture of the electrode has little or no elasticity, and it is maintained in a given configuration in the electrode forming zone. Conversely, in the area where he travels guide, this conductive son forms meanders allowing it to lie inside the sheath when the textile undergoes an elongation in a direction parallel to the sleeves. Advantageously in practice, the son that make up the electrode are woven forming floats, so as to have an increased surface in the direction of the skin of the user. This surface is further increased when the textile, which is woven with a transverse tension and relaxed after weaving, the floats thus forming loops a little more prominent.

In a particular embodiment, the electrode may have wires extending from two opposite sides so as to form a redundant supply circuit. Advantageously practical, the conductive son present in the sleeves work with the background of the textile near the ends of the sheath. In this way, these conductive son are somehow blocked, so that there remains inside the sheath a sufficient amount of conductive wire, forming corrugations, and thus able to encase an elongation of the fabric.

In a particular form, the garment may comprise zones in which the conductive wires coming from the electrode work by forming floats at the ends of the sheaths, so as to generate zones of connection to any type of external device.

In a particular embodiment, the garment may comprise a garment zone formed by the overlap of the two selvedges of the textile, this covering defining a sheath inside which the conductive wires coming from the electrode extend, to open on a edge of the garment, or more generally in an area where will be implanted an electronic device and electrically connected to the electrode.

Brief description of the figures

 The manner of carrying out the invention, as well as the advantages resulting therefrom, will come out of the description of the embodiments which follows, in support of the appended figures in which:

 - Figure 1 is a front view of a garment according to the invention;

 Figure 2 is a rear view of the garment of Figure 1;

- Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view along the plane ΙΙΙ-ΙΙΓ of Figure 2; - Figure 4 is a top view of an alternative embodiment of a textile for manufacturing a garment according to the invention;

 - Figure 5 is a view similar to Figure 4, wherein a portion has been folded;

 FIG. 6 is a sectional view in the weft direction of the textile forming the garment of FIG. 1, shown at the level of a characteristic electrode and sheath;

 FIG. 7 is a view from above of the textile in the same zone as that of FIG. 6.

Of course, these figures are given for explanatory purposes, and the dimensions and proportions have been exaggerated and may differ from reality, only for the purpose of allowing the understanding of the invention. detailed description

 As illustrated in FIG. 1, the invention relates to a garment 1, which is illustrated in the form of a swimsuit or T-shirt, and therefore which is equipped near the heart zone with two electrodes 2,3 which extend laterally through conductive circuits 4,5,6,7 allowing their connection with a control device / not shown. These circuits 4-7 are inserted into protective sleeves 14-17 within which they walk while being protected.

In the form shown in Figure 2, the 4-7 circuits extend laterally around the torso, to end up on the back of the garment. In this embodiment, the four circuits 4-7 extend to the edges of the textile near which the sleeves 14-17 are interrupted and thus allow the output of the circuits 4.7. These selvedges 11, 12 are assembled by making, with an overlap zone, which makes it possible to define a sheath or channel 13 making it possible to extend the electrical circuits 4-7 up to the upper part of the garment, at which point it can be mounted the electronic control / command device, as illustrated schematically in FIG.

An alternative embodiment is illustrated in Figures 4 and 5. In this variant, the 52-55 electrodes are extended by the 72-75 electrical circuits, which are protected by sleeves 62-65 similar to those of the previous examples. These sleeves extend beyond the zone 80 represented by the line in dashed lines, appearing the border of the confection zone of the vertical channel 13 as illustrated in FIG. 2, by which the electrical circuits are conveyed in part. high of the garment. Thus, the fabric initial of Figure 4 is cut in the dashed lines to form a tab 81, which extends over a length substantially corresponding to that of the vertical channel 13.

This tab 81 is intended to be folded at 90 ° as shown in Figure 5, so that the end parts 162-165 of the sleeves connected to the electrodes 52 55 run vertically towards the top of the garment.

FIG. 4 shows that studs 90 are arranged on the sleeves 62-75, in zone 84 intended to become the vertical channel 13. These studs are arranged such that after folding of the tab 81, they are interpose between the sleeves 62-65 and the extensions 162-165 of these same sleeves. In this way, it provides increased electrical insulation between the conductors present inside these sleeves, which are connected to separate electrodes. According to one characteristic of the invention, the electrodes 2, 3 are made with conducting wires, advantageously metallic, which also form the electrical circuits 4 of connection. More specifically, and as illustrated in FIG. 6, in the region of the electrode 2, the wire 20 is woven with the bottom wires 21 made of an elastic material. This yarn 20 is woven so as to form floats 22 which create a high contact surface for receiving the skin contact of the user. It should be noted that during weaving of the fabric, the elastic bottom threads 21 are tensioned, and when this tension is released, the floats 22 of the conductive thread 20 are brought together to form loops which further increase the contact area per unit area of the electrode. Of course, the weave of the conductive threads 20 with the bottom face at the electrode can be adapted in particular according to the elastic properties of the background son, and the desired resistivity for the electrode.

According to the invention, a portion of the wires 20 of the electrode is extended to form the connection circuit of the electrode, which travels in the sheath 14 formed between the double fabric weave 18,19 shown in Figure 76. Inside this sleeve 14, the conductive wire is extended thereby ensuring perfect continuity with the electrode, since it is the same wire.

It should be noted that when the textile is being woven, the elastic bottom threads are stretched, and receive the weft insertion of the conductive threads which are almost inextensible. Thus, when this tension is released, it leads to the configuration of Figure 7, wherein the wire 20 meanders inside the sleeve 14. The width of the sleeve 14 is determined to accommodate the amount of sufficient conductive wire of so that the textile can maintain a satisfactory elongation capacity, without changing the resistance of the connection circuit, nor degradation of the latter.

In the form illustrated in FIG. 6, the wire 20 present at the end of the sheath an area 30 in which it works more intimately with the bottom face, preferably by forming floats 25, so as to make apparent the thread and allow thus its connection with other electronic devices reported directly on the textile.

Of course, these areas of blocking of the thread relative to textile can be multiplied as needed. It is also possible to create these locking zones 30 to form fixed points of the conductive thread relative to the textile, and limited the sleeve lengths to prevent the conductive thread from getting tangled inside the sheath. By way of example, good results have been obtained by producing a bi-elastic textile according to the invention, which uses, as warp, warp and weft, yarns based on 80% of polyamide, and 20% by weight. % elastane, and as conductive yarns, a monotoron copper wire, coated with an insulating varnish. It follows from the foregoing that the garment in accordance with the invention has the advantage of being equipped with electrodes making it possible, for example, to carry out a monitoring of the heartbeat of its user, with a very great reliability concerning the connection of the electrode to its supply circuit, since the same continuous wire serves to form a portion of the electrode and the supply circuit in question. This reliability is understood in particular vis-à-vis the mechanical and chemical stresses observed during the use of the garment, especially for sports, as well as for washing machine garment operations.

Claims

1 / instrumented garment (1), made of an elastic woven fabric, and comprising an electrode (2, 3) present on the face of the textile intended to come into contact with the skin of the user, and a connection circuit (4) -7) of said electrode (2, 3) to an electronic device, characterized in that the electrode is made of electrically conductive yarns (20) which are woven into the textile, all or part of said yarns (20) extending into one or more sleeves (14-17) formed by selective weaving of the non-conductive elastic threads (18, 19) to form superimposed and locally disjointed parallel textile webs. Garment according to Claim 1, characterized in that the electrode (2, 3) has wires extending from two opposite sides. 3 / Apparel according to claim 1, characterized in that the son composing the electrode are woven forming floats. 4 / Garment according to claim 1, characterized in that the conductive son present in the sleeves work with the ground son near the ends of the sleeves. 5 / Apparel according to claim 1, characterized in that the conductive son present in the sleeves are corrugated inside said sleeves. 6 / garment according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a forming zone formed by the overlap of two selvedges (1 1, 12), said covering defining a sheath (13) inside which extend the son conductors (4-7) from the electrode, to lead to an edge of the garment. 7 / garment according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises areas in which the conductive son (4-7) from the electrode (2,3) work float end of the sleeves (14-17).