Resistance variation of conductive ink applied by screen print technique on different substrates

Abstract

This work studied the behaviour of two conductive inks, applied by conventional screen print method, on four different textile substrates, 100% cotton, 50% cotton 50% polyester, 100% polyester and 100% polyamide. The inks were also applied on a multifibre fabric. Atmospheric plasma treatment was applied in order to improve the adhesion on the samples [1], and the resistance values were compared with non-treated samples on the different fibres. The values were measured before and after cleaning and washing tests performed to simulate home treatment for garments, in order to predict the behaviour of the inks after the normal usage of the fabrics. Comfort properties like stiffness of the fabrics were also evaluated after 5 and 10 washing cycles.