Development of machine configuration for T- and I-profiles and their topological modelling

Abstract

This works presents a numerical investigation about the production and simulation of braided products with complex cross section. The geometrical modelling of tubular and flat braids is already well described in the literature and implemented in several scripts and commercial software like TexMind Braider. In the literature are reported as well several works about the modelling of 3D braided structures, created using different 3D braiding techniques. For the case of complex maypole braiding machine with horn gears are reported some works with the software TexMind Braiding Machine Configurator, which emulates the carrier motion for the creation of the 3D geometry of the braids. This work presents evaluation of the possibilities of the software for designing machines with large number of horn gears in custom arrangements and at the same time presents the results of a large set of tests of the possible combinations for arrangements of horn gears with different size for the production of complex multilayer braided structures like T-, and double-T-profiles. The investigation shows, that the possibilities for carrier arrangement are directly connected with the topology of the tracks of these carriers and for structures with multiple tracks more empty places in the arrangement is required. For the cases, where for such structures suitable machine configuration and carrier arrangement is found, an simplistic 3D geometry of the braid is generated and can be used for FEM calculations, relaxation and other computations of the properties.