WOVEN FABRIC WITH HOLLOW CHANNEL FOR PREVENTION OF STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO FUNCTIONAL YARN, MONOFILAMENT YARN, OR WIRE CONTAINED THEREIN

摘要

A fabric substrate (100) having a warp direction (W) and a fill direction (F) is provided. The fabric substrate includes a plurality of warp yarns (112, 114) and a plurality of fill yarns (106). A portion of the plurality of the fill yarns (106) form a hollow channel (110) extending in the fill direction, and the hollow channel contains an encased fill yarn (108). As such, the encased fill yarn is protected from abrasion, bending, flexing, folding, compression, shrinkage, or expansion of the fabric substrate and remains undamaged after the fabric substrate is woven and subsequently handled or processed. In other embodiments, a hollow channel containing an encased yarn is formed in the warp direction, or hollow channels each containing an encased yarn are formed in both the fill direction and the warp direction.