Felt having conductivity gradient
AssigneeMilliken & Company
InventorsAlfred R. DeAngelis, Andrew D. Child
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention relates to an electromagnetically conductive textile fabric comprising conductive fibers arranged to provide a conductivity gradient through its thickness. The fibers may be intrinsically conductive or coated with a conducting material and the gradient can be related to variances in fiber density, fiber diameter (fineness) and fiber conductivity. The fabric can be used to eliminate or reduce electromagnetic interference (EMI) in various applications.
Claims26
An electromagnetically conductive textile fabric comprising conductive fibers creating a conductivity gradient through the thickness of the fabric, wherein the fabric is selected from the group consisting of woven, knitted and nonwoven fabrics, provided that if the textile fabric is a woven fabric, the woven fabric comprises two or more superimposed webs, and wherein the gradient is produced by a variation selected from the group consisting of:
- (a) intrinsically conductive fibers, wherein the concentration of the conductive fibers varies through the thickness of the fabric;
- (b) first and second intrinsically conductive fibers having different conductivities, wherein the relative concentration of the first and second fibers varies through the thickness of the fabric;
- (c) non-conductive fibers that are coated with a conductive coating, wherein the fiber surface area per unit of volume varies through the thickness of the fabric;
- (d) first non-conductive fibers that are coated with a conductive coating and second non-conductive fibers, wherein the first and second fibers have different susceptibilities to being coated by a conductive coating and have different conductivities, and wherein the relative concentration of the first and second varies through the thickness of the fabric;
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- (e) first non-conductive fibers that are uniformly coated with a conductive coating, and second fibers having a different conductivity from the first fibers, wherein the first fibers are entangled with the second fibers by needling, and wherein the relative concentration of the first and second fibers varies through the thickness of the fabric.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.