Textile fabrics woven structure

Indeed, materials in a fibrous form have been used by mankind for a long time. Fiber yams have been used for making fabrics, ropes, and cords, and for many other uses since prehistoric times, long before scientists had any idea of the internal structure of these materials. Weaving of cloth has been an important part of most ancient societies. The term fabric is frequently employed as a metaphor for society. One talks of the social fabric or moral fiber of a society, etc. It is interesting to note that an archeological excavation of a 9000-year-old site in Thrkey led to the discovery of a piece of fabric, a piece of linen, woven from the fibers of a flax plant (New York Times, 1993). Normally, archeologists date an era by the pottery of that era. It would appear from this discovery that even before the pottery, there were textile fabrics. There is also recorded use of sutures as stitches... 

Of the available textile reinforcements (woven, braided, knitted, stitched), many can now be considered to be mature applications. For example, non-crimp fabric (carbon fibre) is used to manufacture the A380 rear pressure bulkhead at 240kg, in mass, 6.2m long, 5.5m wide, and 1.6m deep, this can be classed as a large structure at a smaller length scale, braided carbon fibres are now used regularly for high performance bicycle frames. 

The textile structure of fiber-reinforced plastics is built by woven fabrics (Chapter 4), knitwear (Chapter 5), nonwovens (Chapter 6), braids (Chapter 7), and two-dimensional reinforcing textiles of multiaxial structure (Chapter 8). For the matrix, both thermosets and thermoplastics are used. 

In a limited sense, any material suitable for weaving or being made into a woven fabric. In the rubber industry the term is widened to include any material used for the structural reinforcing of a product and thus includes such materials as steel and glass not normally classed as textiles. See Cotton, Nylon, Rayon and Terylene. 

Basic yarn components along with conventional filaments/yarns constitute the feedstock of the weaving process. Selectively fed into a loom and manipulated through an advanced textile manufacturing process, this feedstock can be woven into a complex variety of designs that result in a structurally sound, environmentally compatible fabric that provides electrical and mechanical functionality. Electronic circuits can be formed from the selective interconnection of fibre components during the weaving process. 

Experimental proof for the above-described hypothesis was found by taking microscopic photographs of the textile structures in dry and wet conditions using a fluorescent solution. From these images, it could be seen that air bubbles were indeed trapped in the wet structures, but due to the more regular structure of the non-woven fabrics compared with woven and knitted fabrics, much less air was trapped. Confirmation for the dissolution of these bubbles is found by the absence of air when the textile electrodes were immersed for about 3 days in the fluorescent solution. 

Besides the commonplace uses as textiles and the more sophisticated uses as reinforcements to make composite materials, woven fabrics made of a fibrous yam can be used to make versatile yet low cost structures. Such construction alternatives can provide the following advantages ... 

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