The Effects of Fabric and Conductive Wire Properties on Electromagnetic Shielding Effectiveness and Surface Resistivity of Interlock Knitted Fabrics

Our aim in this study was to investigate the effects of course density, yarn linear density and thickness and type of conductive wire on electromagnetic shielding effectiveness. Metal/cotton conductive composite yarns were produced by the core-spun technique on the ring spinning machine, involving stainless steel, copper and silver coated copper wires with 40 μm, 50 μm, 60 μm thicknesses and Ne10/1 and Ne20/1 count yarns. The interlock fabrics were knitted on a 7G flat knitting machine with the three different machine settings. The EMSE and the surface resistivity of knitted fabrics were measured by the co-axial transmission line method according to the ASTM-D4935-10 standard in the frequency range from 15 to 3000 MHz and by the ASTM D257-07 standard, respectively. It was observed that all fabrics shielded around 95 % of electromagnetic waves at low frequencies, 80 % at medium frequencies and 70 % at high frequencies. Increasing the course density and thickness of conductive wire in interlock knitted fabrics increased the EMSE correspondingly. The knitted fabrics that had been produced with high yarn count showed greater EMSE because there was less isolation. The effect of the metal wire type was highly significant between 15 and 600 MHz.