Technical textiles have been applied to a wide range of areas that require specific mechanical performance. For the particular field of textile composites, the mechanical properties depend to a large extent on the yarn structure, as well as the fibre type and matrix system used. To date, much research has been directed to the application and improvement of existing textile manufacturing methods, and to the development of novel methods to provide textile structures as a basis for composite components. The focus of our research is to examine the possibility of integrally weaving parts for application to structural composites, and in particular to explore methods for providing yarn at orientations other than the primary weaving axes. This paper describes a novel weaving method to provide weft oriented ±45° pile yarn in distance fabrics that are subsequently manufactured into sandwich composites.
The result of implementing this method for a carbon fibre preform is shown below in Figure 1. This view is looking between the upper and lower warp layers from the reed to the fabric fell, and shows ±45° weft pile (plus orthogonal pile) resulting from the method described in this paper.
By: A. Durie¹, R. Griffith², I. Verpoest³ ¹ Corresponding author: A. Durie, Department MTM, KULeuven, K
Submit Date: 6/7/2010 18:00