Modification of 2D Conventional Weaving Machine for the Fabrication of High Performance Woven Preforms: Part-I: Design and Manufacturing of Warp Creel

The Woven preforms are generally manufactured by weaving technique using either complex 3D weaving machines or especially designed patent machines. The advantage of conventional technique lies in the flexibility of yardage production and composite may be developed by lamination or directly using 3D multilayer structure. Due to the stiffer nature of high-performance fibers, the conventional weaving technology causes damage of fibers in general and strength and modulus in particular. The warp creel is one of the main elements of weaving machine which is responsible for such fiber damage due to inflexible unwinding of fiber spool caused by friction. Therefore, in this research, a warp creel with novel features has been designed and manufactured to replace the conventional warp beam for smooth processing of high performance fibers. For this purpose, different parts of the proposed warp creel were designed and manufactured, including creel frame and adjustable spindles. These parts were manufactured with different specifications and order to carry out the smooth processing of high-performance tow. All these parts were manufactured with MS steel. The developed warp creel was used for the production of high-performance fiber preforms. In this study, three different high-performance fibers (Carbon, Kevlar and Glass) were used to fabricate plain woven preforms. The main objective of this research is the preclusion of the fibers/filaments from deterioration from weaving mechanism. The results showed the minimum number of filaments of carbon tow being damaged. The use of MS steel material and highly polished parts resulted in least amount of frictional contacts which in turn improved the apparent quality of the formed preforms.


INTRODUCTION
T he textile preforms are the general class of engineering materials [1] manufactured to confirm desired shape and specific mechanical and structural characteristics. Many of textile preform manufacturing processes including weaving, braiding and knitting developed in ancient times are still used in remote areas of the world today. From these methods, conventional weaving is one of the most important preform manufacturing processes [2] but it has drawback of deterioration of mechanical properties of high-Authors E-Mail: (sanam.irum@faculty.muet.edu.pk, mazhar.peerzada@faculty.muet.edu.pk, rafique.jhatial@faculty.muet.edu.pk, raja.ashraf@faculty.muet.edu.pk) * Department of Textile Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro performance fibers such as Carbon, Glass and Aramid fibers. However, with the advent of the industrial age, rapid developments in machinery and textile manufacturing techniques have advanced the science of textiles [3]. Over the last decades, several textile technologies have been developed to manufacture textile preforms for fields such as aerospace, automotive, transport, sports, wind energy and off-shore. The aim was to improve the mechanical performance [4]. Due to design versatility woven preforms are playing important roles in meeting the high-performance demands for technical applications because the weaving technology is able to use a variety of raw materials and to convert them into products with various geometrical forms [5]. In conventional looms warp yarns are supplied from warp beam that contains thousands of individual warp yarns

WARP CREEL
The warp creel is used to unwind and feed the carbon tow to 2D conventional weaving machine to manufacture

Creel Frame
The creel frame was manufactured from MS steel. It brakes were fitted at the bottom of the creel for adjusting the creel. Fig.9 and 10 depicts 2D and 3D drawing of wheels. Table 1 shows the specifications below of all these components prepared for this study.

Adjustable Spindle
The adjustable spindles were made from MS steel polished rods to hold the cheese of carbon tow packages for manufacturing of textile composite preforms. Fig.11 and 12 show 2D and 3D views of adjustable spindle. Its flexibility lies in its design to hold different package diameters. The 63.5 mm diameter nylon plates were used to hold and provide ease in the unwinding of carbon packages. The collar of nylon plate was 6mm and the internal diameter was 78mm with external diameter of 78mm. drawings of spring. The diameter of spring was 19.05mm and the thickness of wire of springs was 2mm. Table 2 shows the specifications.     (1/1) woven preforms. Table 3 shows different parameters of woven preforms construction.

DETAILS OF PREFORMS CONSTRUCTION
For this study warp tows of carbon 12k denier, Kevlar 1130dtex and glass 4200 tex were selected. The preform structure was plain weave of (1/1).

CONCLUSION
An innovative work of manufacturing warp creel with some unique and specific attributes has been successfully performed. While replacing the conventional complex warp beam, the newly designed warp creel showed excellent features. The main objective of this research was the preclusion of the fibers/filaments from deterioration from weaving mechanism. The results showed the minimum number of filaments of carbon tow being damaged. The use of MS steel material and highly polished parts resulted in least amount of frictional contacts which in turn improved the apparent quality of the formed preforms.