FR3060950A1 - INSTRUMENT GARMENT COMPRISING AN ELASTIC WOVEN TEXTILE AND ELECTRODES - Google Patents

Abstract

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 which are woven into the textile, all or part of said yarns extending into one or more sleeves ( 14-17) formed by selective weaving of the non-conductive elastic yarns to form superposed and locally disjointed parallel textile webs.

Description

Holder (s):

PAYEN.

O Extension request (s):

© Agent (s): LAWRENCE AND CHARRAS CABINET.

© INSTRUMENT GARMENT COMPRISING AN ELASTIC WOVEN TEXTILE, AND ELECTRODES.

FR 3 060 950 - A1 (57) Instrumented garment (1), made of an elastic woven fabric, and comprising an electrode (2,3) present on the face of the fabric 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 threads which are woven into the textile, all or part of said yarns extending in one or more sheaths (14-17) formed by a selective weaving of elastic non-conductive yarns to form parallel superimposed and locally disjointed textile plies.

-1 INSTRUMENT CLOTHING COMPRISING A WOVEN TEXTILE

ELASTIC, AND ELECTRODES

Technical area

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

Invention background

Instrumented clothing has already been described, in particular in document WO 2015/101 759 of the Applicant. This document describes garments which 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 made by means of elastic conductive wires which run inside the textile, being protected by woven zones so as to form sheaths.

These garments have some drawbacks, in particular related to the use of an elastic conductive son. In fact, this type of yarn is not particularly common, and all the more so when it must have properties of mechanical resistance due to the stresses in extension of this type of clothing, and of chemical resistance during washing of the garment. Another drawback lies in the difficulty that there is in ensuring the connection between the sensors and its supply wires. A welded connection is not necessarily appropriate because of the overheating it causes near the textile. A connection using conductive adhesive can also present risks of disconnection in the event of high mechanical stress.

-2Anyway, the solutions described in this document have the disadvantage of requiring manual assembly operations, which significantly increases the cost price of the garment.

Statement of the invention

An objective of the invention is therefore to obtain an instrumented garment which has increased qualities of mechanical and chemical resistance, in particular during elongation stresses. Another objective 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 includes an electrode present on the face of the fabric intended to come into contact with the skin of the user. This garment also includes a circuit for connecting this electrode to an electronic device, which can perform various functions such as the shaping of the signal obtained, the power supply of this electrode as well as the transmission of information to a central processing device.

According to the invention, this garment is characterized in that the electrode is made of electrically conductive threads which are woven into the textile, all or part of these threads extending into one or more sheaths formed by selective weaving elastic non-conductive textile yarns, forming overlapping and locally disjointed parallel textile plies.

In other words, the invention consists in producing the electrode by weaving, and in constituting at the same time the circuit for connecting the electrode to its control members. The continuity and the connection between the electrode and its supply circuit is made by the continuity of the conductive wires which in a first section form part of the electrode, and form in another section the supply circuit. The simultaneous realization of the electrode and the supply circuit thus eliminates the problems of connection of attached parts, shortens the manufacturing time, and very clearly increases the reliability of the assembly.

Advantageously practical, the conductive wires which are present in the sleeves are wavy inside these sleeves, so as to allow the use of wire

-3 weakly or inelastic conductor inside a fabric which is essentially elastic. In other words, the conductive wire used to manufacture the electrode has little or no elasticity, and it is maintained in a given configuration in the area of formation of the electrode. Conversely, in the zone where it runs through the guide sleeves, this conductive wire forms meanders allowing it to lengthen inside the sheath when the textile undergoes elongation in a direction parallel to the sleeves.

Advantageously in practice, the wires which make up the electrode are woven by forming floats, so as to present an increased surface in the direction of the skin of the user. This surface is further increased when the textile, which is woven with transverse tension and released after weaving, the floats thus forming slightly more prominent loops.

In a particular embodiment, the electrode may have wires which extend from two opposite sides, so as to form a redundancy supply circuit.

Advantageously practical, the conductive threads present in the sheaths work with the bottom threads of the textile near the ends of the sheath. In this way, these conductive threads are in a way blocked, so that a sufficient amount of conductive thread remains inside the sheath, forming undulations, and thus capable of absorbing an elongation of the fabric.

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

In a particular embodiment, the garment may include a clothing zone formed by the covering of the two edges of the textile, this covering defining a sheath inside which the conductive wires extending from the electrode are extended, to lead to a edge of the garment, or more generally in an area where an electronic device will thus be installed, electrically connected to the electrode.

-4 Brief description of the figures

The manner of carrying out the invention, as well as the advantages which flow therefrom, will emerge well from the description of the embodiments which follows, with the support of the appended figures in which:

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

- Figure 2 is a back 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, in which a part has been folded down;

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

FIG. 7 is a top view of the textile in the same area as that of FIG. 6.

Of course, these figures are only given for explanatory purposes, and the dimensions and the 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 jersey or T-shirt, and therefore which is equipped near the cardiac zone with two electrodes 2, 3 which are extended laterally by conductive circuits 4,5,6,7 allowing their connection with a control / command device not shown. These circuits 4-7 are inserted in protective sleeves 14-17 inside which they travel while being protected.

In the form illustrated in Figure 2, circuits 4-7 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 to

-5proximity of which the sleeves 14-17 are interrupted and thus allow the output of the circuits 4.7. These selvedges 11,12 are assembled by confection, 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 to the upper part of the garment, at the level of which can be mounted the electronic control / command device.

A variant embodiment is illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5. In this variant, the electrodes 52-55 are extended by the electrical circuit circuits 72-75, which are protected by sheaths 62-65 similar to those of the previous examples. These sleeves extend beyond the area 80 represented by the line in dashed lines, appearing the edge of the area for making the vertical channel 13 as illustrated in FIG. 2, by which the electrical circuits are routed up to high of the garment. Thus, the initial fabric of FIG. 4 is cut along the broken lines to form a tab 81, which extends over a length corresponding substantially to that of the vertical channel 13.

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

It can be seen in FIG. 4, that studs 90 are arranged on the sleeves 62-75, in the area 84 intended to become the vertical channel 13. These studs are arranged so 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, an increased electrical insulation is provided between the conductors present inside these sleeves, which are connected to separate electrodes.

According to a characteristic of the invention, the electrodes 2, 3 are produced with conductive wires, advantageously metallic, which also form the electrical connection circuits 4. More precisely, and as illustrated in FIG. 3, in the area of the electrode 2, the wire 20 is woven with the bottom wires 21 made of an elastic material. This wire 20 is woven so as to form floats 22 which create a high contact surface intended to receive the contact of the skin of the user. It will be noted that during the weaving of the fabric, the elastic bottom threads 21 are stretched, and when this tension is

-6 released, the floats 22 of the conductive wire 20 are combined to form loops which further increase the contact surface per unit area of the electrode. Of course, the weaving weave of the conducting wires 20 with the bottom face at the level of the electrode can be adapted in particular as a function of the elastic properties of the bottom son, and of the resistivity sought for the electrode.

In accordance with the invention, a part of the wires 20 of the electrode extends to form the connection circuit of the electrode, which travels in the sheath 14 formed between the double fabric weaving 18,19 illustrated in FIG. 4. Inside this sheath 14, the conductive wire is extended, thus 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, one arrives at the configuration of FIG. 5, in which the wire 20 forms meanders inside the sheath 14. The width of the sheath 14 is determined to accommodate the sufficient quantity of conductive wire of so that the textile can maintain a satisfactory elongation capacity, without modifying the resistance of the connection circuit, or degradation of the latter.

In the form illustrated in FIG. 4, the wire 20 present at the end of the sheath a zone 30 in which it works more intimately with the bottom face, preferably by forming floats 25, so as to make the conductive wire visible and allow thus its connection with other electronic devices reported directly either on the textile.

Of course, these zones for blocking the conductive thread with respect to the textile can be increased as required. It is also possible to create these blocking zones 30 to form fixed points of the conductive thread relative to the textile, and limit the lengths of sheath to prevent the conductive thread from becoming 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 background yarns, warp and weft,

-7base den 80% of polyamide, and 20% of spandex, and as conductive wires, a monotoron copper wire, coated with an insulating varnish.

It appears from the above that the garment according to the invention has the advantage of being equipped with electrodes making it possible, for example, to monitor the heart rate of its user, with very high reliability concerning the connection of the electrode to its supply circuit, since the same continuous wire is used to form part of the electrode and the supply circuit in question. This reliability is understood in particular with respect to the mechanical and chemical stresses observed during the use of the garment, in particular for sporting practice, as well as for the operations of washing the garment in a machine.

Claims (7)

1 / Instrumented clothing (1), made of an elastic woven fabric, and comprising an electrode (2,3) present on the face of the fabric intended to come into contact with the skin of the user, and a connection circuit (4 -7) from said electrode (2, 3) to an electronic device, characterized in that the electrode is made of electrically conductive threads which are woven into the textile, all or part of said threads extending into one or more sheaths (14-17) formed by a selective weaving of non-conductive elastic threads to form parallel superimposed and locally disjointed textile plies. 2 / A garment according to claim 1 characterized in that the electrode (2, 3) has wires extending from two opposite sides. 3 / A garment according to claim 1, characterized in that the wires making up the electrode are woven by forming floats. 4 / Garment according to claim 1, characterized in that the conductive son present in the sleeves work with the bottom son near the ends of the sleeves. 5 / A garment according to claim 1, characterized in that the conductive son present in the sleeves are wavy inside said sleeves. 6 / A garment according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a confection zone formed by the covering of two selvedges (11, 12), said covering defining a sheath (13) inside which the conductive wires extend (4-7) from the electrode, to lead to an edge of the garment. 7 / A garment according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises zones in which the conducting wires (4-7) coming from the electrode (2,3) work in float at the end of the sleeves (14-17). 1/3 2/3