3D Weaving

3D shaped fabrics are widely used for producing
technical applications including textile composites,
medical textiles, and protective textiles. Textile
engineers and material scientists have developed 3D
textile preforms for composites, which are becoming
more popular in many areas due to their light weight,
dimensional stability, and high strength properties.
Architecture of a textile preform can vary from a
simple planar sheet to complex 3D shell shapes. This
book aims to exploit the potentials of conventional
looms for producing dome-shaped fabrics for technical
applications, such as protective helmet, aircraft
seat, motorcycle seat, and bullet-proof vest for
women. Second objective of this research is to
develop methods for evaluating the dome effect of
fabrics. A dome tester has been developed in the
research with the capability of measuring the dome
formability and also the fabric mouldability. The
results of both evaluation methods for the dome
formability revealed that loose fabric structures
lead to better dome formability for all fabric types.
The results also showed that increasing the number of
layers for the multi-layer fabrics has produced less
obvious dome effects.