Design and implementation of a novel weaving machine for 3D non crimp fabric

By using of binder yarn in weaving process, the 3D woven reinforced composites have attracted lots of attentions due to their excellent delamination resistance. It is most suitable for special fibers such as carbon fiber, grass fiber, and aramid fiber. In this paper, a novel weaving machine including multi shedding mechanism, warper creel, weft insertion motion and beating-up motion is designed to manufacture the 3D non-crimp fabric (NCF). In the multi shedding mechanism where carbon or glass fiber is employed as the reinforced material, the harness frames in shedding mechanism are independently actuated by servo motor to form particular shedding structure, which carry the binder yarn to obtain corresponding fabric pattern. The yarn creel and two-pillar tensioners are used to release the yarns with specific tension. The weft insertion motion is also designed to realize multilayer reciprocating motion simultaneously with adjustable tension. The beating-up forces can be regulated by adjusting the stroke of reed. Screw rod driven by servo motor is adopted to taking-up to achieve adjustable weft density. Moreover, the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) is involved in the design for controlling the weaving loop such as shedding, beating-up force and weft density. These operating parameters can be configured on-line to produce the 3D non-crimp fabric rapidly. The study discussing the design and control about the 3D weaving machine in detail has important implications for manufacture of fiber reinforced composite structure.