Page 38 - 3D Fibre Reinforced Polymer Composites

Manufacture of 30 Fibre Preforms 27

Braider

Moving mandrel

Yarn carriers
(a)

Figure 2.14 (a) Schematic of braiding over a moving mandrel, b) Example of braiding
over a T-shaped mandrel (courtesy of the Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced
Composite Structures, Ltd)

The process of 4-step braiding can also be accomplished with a cylindrical equipment
configuration. An example of this braiding process, called Through-the-Thickness@
braiding, was developed at Atlantic Research Corporation (Brown, 1985; 1988). The
equipment consists of a number of identical rings situated side by side in an axial
arrangement. These rings contain grooves within which the yarn carriers can move
from ring to ring in an axial direction. Movement circumferentially is achieved through
rotation of the rings, thus accomplishing the 4-step process as shown in Figure 2.16.