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CAD/CAM Tool for 3D Woven Textile Fabric Design
Abstract
3-D weaving processes have been advanced within the past decade to manufacture composite components with complex macro- and micro-geometries. Complex composite components are not an assembly of simple unit-cells. At each machine step during the weaving process, the position of each warp yarn must be controlled individually by a Jacquard head. Designing the procedure for the weaving kinematics is labor-intensive. In this paper, a CAD/CAM computational tool is developed to 1) input and define fabric topology and 2) establish a link between fabric topology and weaving kinematics. At each step, the weaving position of the Jacquard head corresponding to each individual warp is calculated, exported in a commercial loom format, and sent to the Jacquard head controller. The 3-D fabric topology can be exported in a format which can be read by the Dynamic Fabric Mechanics Analyzer, the software applied to determine the micro-geometry of fabrics. The geometry of a fabric would thus be available for future mechanical property calibrations and simulations.
Keywords
textile composite, CAM and CAD, 3-D weaving process.
DOI
10.12783/asc2017/15209
10.12783/asc2017/15209