Mechanisms in Knitted Fabric Composites

Centre for Advanced Composite Materials, School of Engineering, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand 

So far, the bulk of literature has concentrated on characterizing the mechanical properties of both thermosetting- - - and thermoplastic-based - knitted composite materials. The modeling of the mechanical properties (mainly stiffness and tensile) has also been popular. However, limited literature exists on the forming property characteristics of knitted fabric-reinforced thermoplastics - and their processing properties are still poorly understood. In fact, most of the literature on forming properties deals with unidirectional, - mostly woven and, to a lesser extent, braided reinforcements, rather than knitted reinforcements. 

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Chapter 15 Deformation Mechanisms in Knitted Fabric Composites... 

Glass is available in the form of rovings (untwisted bundles of strands), yam (twisted bundles of strands), and bonded, needled, woven and knitted fabrics made fi om each. Yam-based fabrics are the most expensive but yield the strongest composites. The cheapest fabric is the chemically bound, non-woven, two-dimensionally random, chopped strand mat, but where better mechanical properties are needed tapes, scrims, square weaves, twills, satins and various knitted constructions are preferred. 

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