Abstract
In this study, electrically conductive and flexible aluminum coatings using powder and wire flame spraying were successfully deposited onto diverse textiles. The influences of various process parameters and fabric materials on the electrical conductivity and microstructure of the metal-fabric composites were investigated. Preliminary results show that to obtain excellent coating surface conductivity values a specific coating quantity of higher than 20 mg/cm2 is required. After further optimization of the spraying parameters, very good specific surface conductivities (∼500 SA) could be obtained even with reduced coating quantities. Through an adequate parameter optimization a reduction in the specific coating quantity was also achieved while high conductivity values were retained. In addition, when the coating quantity was reduced, the flexibility of the fabric substrates was better conserved. This investigation illustrates that optimized electrically conductive composites with flexible fabric substrates can be produced without any preliminary thermal or chemical fabric specifications.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
D.W. Carroll, “Wearable Personal Computer System Having Flexible Battery Forming Casing of the System”, US Patent 5572401, 1996
Z.S. Nakad, “Architectures for e-Textiles”, PhD Thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA, 2003
R. Service, Patterning Electronics on the Cheap, Science, 1997, 278(5337), p. 383-384
E. Lugscheider, Handbuch der thermischen Spritztechnik (Thermal Spray Handbook) (DVS-Verlag GmbH, 2002), 221 p (in German)
J. Voyer, P. Schulz, and M. Schreiber, Conducting Flame Sprayed Al-Coatings on Textile Fabrics, J. Therm. Spray Technol., 2008, 17(4), in press
Handbook of Thermal Spray Technology, J.R. Davis, Ed., ASM International, 2005, 338 p
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Austrian National Foundation for funding this research work in the frame of the project Austrian Light Weight Structures.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This article is an invited paper selected from presentations at the 2008 International Thermal Spray Conference and has been expanded from the original presentation. It is simultaneously published in Thermal Spray Crossing Borders, Proceedings of the 2008 International Thermal Spray Conference, Maastricht, The Netherlands, June 2-4, 2008, Basil R. Marple, Margaret M. Hyland, Yuk-Chiu Lau, Chang-Jiu Li, Rogerio S. Lima, and Ghislain Montavon, Ed., ASM International, Materials Park, OH, 2008.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Voyer, J., Schulz, P. & Schreiber, M. Electrically Conductive Flame Sprayed Aluminum Coatings on Textile Substrates. J Therm Spray Tech 17, 818–823 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11666-008-9228-7
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11666-008-9228-7