US-12618724-B2 - Fabric-type sensor including fabric base material and a line-shaped sensor element and fabric-type sensor device

US12618724B2US 12618724 B2US12618724 B2US 12618724B2US-12618724-B2

Abstract

[Problem] To Provide a fabric-like sensor in which an output signal can be improved when in use and damage or fracture of a sensor element hardly occurs, and a fabric-like sensor device using it. [Solution] In a fabric-like sensor S having a fabric base material 1 and a line-shaped sensor element 2 , at least one line-shaped cavity portion 11 is provided inside the fabric base material 1 , and at least a part of the cavity portion 11 is composed of a raw fabric at least a part of the cavity portion has no elasticity in a line direction of the cavity portion 11 , and further the line-shaped sensor element 2 is arranged in a state of not being substantially constrained or fixed in at least one of cavity portions in a fabric 1.

Inventors

Ken Ogasawara
Satoshi Shimizu
Masaaki Sasaki
Manabu Nakajima
Masahiro MURAO
Ken Miyazaki

Assignees

DAIKIN FINETECH, LTD.
SHINDO CO., LTD.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20220202
Priority Date: 20210224

Claims (7)

1 . A fabric-based sensor comprising: a fabric base material; and a line-shaped sensor element, wherein the fabric base material comprises at least one line-shaped cavity portion inside and is composed of a raw fabric at least a part of the cavity portion has no elasticity in a line direction of the cavity portion, and wherein the line-shaped sensor element is arranged in a state of not being constrained or fixed in the at least one of cavity portions in the fabric base material, and wherein a non-cavity portion of the fabric base material is made of a single woven structure or a single knitted structure and the cavity portion is formed of a double structure using a ground yarn of the single structure of the non-cavity portion.
2 . The fabric-based sensor according to claim 1 , wherein the fabric base material comprises a plurality of cavity portions, the line-shaped sensor element is arranged in all the cavity portions.
3 . The fabric-based sensor according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of line-shaped sensor elements is a piezoelectric sensor.
4 . The fabric-based sensor according to claim 1 having an elastomer material on at least one face of a front and back faces of a region of the fabric base material in which the cavity portion is formed.
5 . The fabric-based sensor according to claim 4 , wherein the elastomer material is a part of a raw fabric composing the fabric base material.
6 . A fabric-based sensor device comprising: the fabric-based sensor according to claim 1 ; and a signal processing device.
7 . A fabric-based sensor comprising: a fabric base material; a line-shaped sensor element, wherein the fabric base material comprises at least one line-shaped cavity portion inside and is composed of a raw fabric at least a part of the cavity portion has no elasticity in a line direction of the cavity portion, and wherein the line-shaped sensor element is arranged in a state of not being constrained or fixed in the at least one of cavity portion in the fabric base material, and wherein a non-cavity portion of the fabric base material is made of a multiple woven structure or a multiple knitted structure and a region that is not partially connected between layers is formed as the cavity portion.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a National Stage of International Application No. PCT/JP2022/004013 filed on Feb. 2, 2022, claiming priority based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2021-028013 filed on Feb. 24, 2021. TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a fabric-like sensor and a fabric-like sensor device used in various detecting devices. BACKGROUND ART A fabric-like sensor (sensor of fabric-like form) has been used as a face pressure-sensitive sensor or a shape change sensor that detects the presence or absence of contact and shape change by attaching it to a target face of bedding or clothing or the like. Further, as such the fabric-like sensor, a line-shaped sensor element has been known which is woven into a fabric and integrated therewith (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 to 3). However, in the conventional fabric-like sensor, since not only was the line-shaped sensor element constrained by a ground yarn of the fabric, but the sensor element itself was also wavy shaped due to that it was woven into the fabric, there was a problem that an influence that was caused by any signal other than a target electrical signal from the sensor element was significant when the fabric-like sensor was deformed and thus an output of the electrical signal was reduced. Further, in the conventional fabric-like sensor, since the line-shaped sensor element was in a state of being exposed to the outside, there was also a drawback that the sensor element was easily damaged when any hard object came into contact with the fabric-like sensor. In addition, when an elasticity was imparted to the fabric in which the line-shaped sensor element was woven, there was a risk of disconnection of the sensor element due to an application of a load in the pulling direction to the sensor element constrained by the ground yarn. On the other hand, in the field of decorative fabric, a technique of providing a cavity portion in the structure of the raw woven fabric and inserting a decorative yarn in the cavity portion was also conventionally known (see Patent Document 4). However, this technique was just a technique related to decorative fabrics attached to clothes and automobile seats, or the like and any fabric-like sensor to which this type of technique was applied was not known. PRIOR ART DOCUMENTS Patent Documents Patent Document 1; Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-203996Patent Document 2; Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2017-120885Patent Document 3; Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2018-173292Patent Document 4; Japanese Patent No. 3006998 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Technical Problem An object of the present invention is to solve the problem of the prior arts, and in summary, to provide the fabric-like sensor in which an output signal can be improved when in use and damage or fracture of a sensor element hardly occurs, and a fabric-like sensor device using it. Solution to Problem In the fabric-like sensor based on conventional technology in which the conventional sensor element was woven into the fabric, +(plus) and −(minus) output signals were generated simultaneously within a narrow range due to local expansion and contraction of the sensor element constrained by the ground yarn, and this noise signal and the target signal were thereby canceled by + and −, which caused a risk of output loss. Therefore, in a fabric-like sensor S having a fabric base material 1 and a line-shaped sensor element 2, the present inventors provided at least one line-shaped cavity portion 11 inside the fabric base material 1, and made at least a part of the cavity portion 11 of a raw fabric having no elasticity in a line direction of the cavity portion 11, and further arranged the line-shaped sensor element 2 in at least one of cavity portions 11 in a fabric 1 in a state of not being substantially constrained or fixed (see FIG. 1). Further, according to the present invention, providing a plurality of cavity portions for the fabric base material 1 and arranging the line-shaped sensor element 2 in all cavity portions, detection accuracy of the fabric-like sensor S can be improved. Further, according to the present invention, using a piezoelectric sensor for at least one of the line-shaped sensor elements 2, the fabric-like sensor S can be suitably used as a face pressure-sensitive sensor or a shape change sensor. Further, according to the present invention, composing a non-cavity portion of the fabric base material 1 from a single structure and forming the cavity portion from a double structure (bag-shaped structure) using a grand yarn of the single structure of the non-cavity portion, the fabric-like sensor S face can be flattened. Further, according to the present invention, providing an elastomer material on at least one face of the front and back faces of a region of the fabric base material in which the cavity portion is formed, a non-slip effect can be obtained when the fabric-like sensor S is placed on the target face.