Shuttle Loom

The weaving shuttle that carries a cop of yarn (weft cop) is beat through the shed with a picking motion (Fig. 4.20). With each weft insertion, the total mass of shuttle and weft cop has to be accelerated and decelerated. A true selvedge is produced. 

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Solid fats, like tallow, are sometimes used as lubricants on sized warp yarns in shuttle looms. Without such lubricants, warp yarns can unravel and break as a result of the abrasion of the size by the shuttle and the heddle. This would introduce defects in the fabric and will also affect the efficiency of the weaving process. In knitting, the lubrication of the yams is also important. Lack of lubrication results in nonuniform yam movements that affect the quality of the fabric. 

However, a simpler solution is to change not the material or the pattern, but simply the number of warp yarns used during construction. For example, a shuttle loom equipped with a jacquard shedding system controlled by... 

Figure 9.14 shows a T structure made from carbon fibers. Each flap consists of four layers, and these layers are connected using layer-to-layer interlock weave based on a plain weave (Islam, 1999a,b, 2000) as shown in Figure 9.42.1M7-12K carbon fibers were used, and a tapered T was woven with tapering in all three sides. This tapering was created by dropping one layer at a time. A narrow fabric shuttle loom was used to weave the T structure. 

A cruciform structure is shown in Figure 9.18. The 100% fill fiber of each flap goes through the intersection. Each flap consists of four layers, and again they are connected by layer-to-layer interlock weave based on a plain weave. The typical construction of each layer is 16 x 16 ends and picks per inch in the case of 6K carbon fibers and 16x8 ends and picks per inch in the case of 6K carbon warp fibers and 12K carbon fill fibers. A double cruciform with all sides tapered was also woven using a modified narrow fabric shuttle loom. 

Narrow fabric shuttle looms are used to produce tapes, webbings, tubes, and many 3D preforms. There are different kinds of narrow fabric shuttle looms, such as single... 

There are multiple stations in a narrow fabric shuttle loom. That means the same structure in multiple stations or different structures can be woven on the same loom depending on the capacity of the Jacquard hooks and the total picks per inch in the structure. It is difficult to produce 3D and complex shapes using carbon and brittle fibers on a needle loom. A narrow fabric needle loom (Hans Walter Kipp, 1989) can also be used to produce some 3D preforms. A typical narrow fabric needle loom is shown in Figure 9.58. The selvedge on the side of filling insertion needle is a true... 

The 3D preforms on a conventional 2D loom are woven in a flat form. The first step in weaving 3D preforms on a conventional 2D loom is to figure out how to flatten (Greenwood et al., 1992) the stmcture. Once it is determined, it is followed by the subsequent setup of the loom and the weave architecture. The filling path, based on the performance requirements of 3D preforms, has to be carefully selected. Figure 9.59 shows weaving of carbon-tapered Pi structures in a narrow fabric shuttle loom. 

The 2D conventional loom is modified to weave various 3D woven preforms. What kind of modification(s) should be carried out depends on the nature of preforms to be produced. The take-up and shedding motions are modified in many ways along with other tools that are also installed. Modified looms are used to produce thick panels, contour materials, polar materials, and complex 3D preforms. An unlimited number of 3D preforms and complex shapes can be woven on a modified loom with electronic Jacquard. Figure 9.60 shows a narrow fabric shuttle loom weaving a 50-mm-thick carbon panel. An orthogonal weave has been used with a dead pick motion so thatX, Y, and Z fibers are perpendicular to each other. 

Figure 9.59 Narrow fabric shuttle loom weaving Pi preforms (Courtesy of Bally Ribbon Mills).

According to the principle of weft insertion, weaving looms can be divided into shuttle looms (Fig. 4.13), projectile looms, rapier looms, and air-jet looms. 

In multiphase weh insertion systems, several weft threads are inserted at the same time, in the wave-shed weaving machine, the sheds are oriented wave-like across the whole warp width. In each wave, a small weft cop is drawn off as with the shuttle loom. Production machines have already been sold by various European loom manufacturers. However, this principle has not succeeded because of a lack of quality and flexibility. An automated system to fix weft breaks is another challenge. 

Satin weave 151 Separation (cutting) 284 Setting 256, 297 Setting temperature 54 SET yarn 81 Sewing 288 Shaft drive 156 Shuttle loom 159 Silk 47, 263 Simulation 397 Sisal 42 Sliver 101,105 Spacer fabric 191 Spacer knit fabric 185 Spacer noncrimp fabrics 247... 

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