Multi-material Direct Ink Writing and Embroidery for Stretchable Wearable Sensors

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel textile-compatible fabrication process combining multi-material direct ink writing with embroidery to create durable, stretchable sensors embedded in garments for motion detection and wearable applications.

Contribution

It presents a scalable hybrid fabrication workflow that integrates printing and embroidery for embedding stretchable sensors directly into textiles.

Findings

Sensors achieve up to 120% stretchability with stable electrical performance.

The hybrid sensors demonstrate high linearity and sensitivity up to 60% strain.

Successful integration into wearable garments for joint angle monitoring.

Abstract

The development of wearable sensing systems for sports performance tracking, rehabilitation, and injury prevention has driven growing demand for smart garments that combine comfort, durability, and accurate motion detection. This paper presents a textile-compatible fabrication workflow that integrates multi-material direct ink writing with automated embroidery to create stretchable strain sensors directly embedded into garments. The process combines sequential multi-material printing of a silicone-carbon grease-silicone stack with automated embroidery that provides both mechanical fixation and electrical interfacing in a single step. The resulting hybrid sensor demonstrates stretchability up to 120% strain while maintaining electrical continuity, with approximately linear behaviour up to 60% strain (R^2 = 0.99), a gauge factor of 31.4, and hysteresis of 22.9%. Repeated loading-unloading tests over 80 cycles show baseline and peak drift of 0.135% and 0.236% per cycle, respectively, indicating moderate cycle-to-cycle stability. Mechanical testing further confirms that the silicone-fabric interface remains intact under large deformation, with failure occurring in the textile rather than at the stitched boundary. As a preliminary proof of concept, the sensor was integrated into wearable elbow and knee sleeves for joint angle monitoring, showing a clear correlation between normalised resistance change and bending angle. By addressing both mechanical fixation and electrical interfacing through embroidery-based integration, this approach provides a reproducible and scalable pathway for incorporating printed stretchable electronics into textile systems for motion capture and soft robotic applications.