The Advanced composite manufacturing process increases the demand of the shape of preforms from the biaxial knits in a fashionable way. One possible way for producing such preform materials is that via flat knitting technology. For most applications it is necessary to incorporate straight load bearing yarns into the fabric structure to account for the mechanical properties demanded for the composite part. The focus has been on combining the advantages of flat knitting with the various possibilities of two- and three-dimensional fully fashioned knitting. The aim is to achieve the manufacture of fully fashioned fabrics with straight load bearing yarns on flat knitting machines.
Biaxial Reinforced Knitted Fabrics
Biaxial reinforced knitted fabrics are composed of weft and warp yarn layers which are held together by a stitch yarn system (Figure 1). Reinforcing yarns can be used within all yarn systems. The reinforcing yarn systems provide the necessary composite strength and stiffness, whereas the knitting structure allows the high drapeability of the preforms, as well as good impact behaviors of the composite.
In combination with thermoplastic matrix materials, the preforms are suited for production via the thermomoulding method. The deformation of multilayer knitted fabrics during composite manufacturing is limited by the fabric's structure itself.
This article was originally published in the Textile Review magazine, January, 2013, published by Saket Projects Limited, Ahmedabad.
About the Authors:
Dr. N. Gokarneshan, Anitha Christopher & C.B. Senthil Kumar are associated with the NIFT, TEA College Knitwear Fashion, Tirupur.
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