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A braiding machine is a device that interlaces three or more strands of yarn or wire to create a variety of materials, including rope, reinforced hose, covered power cords, and some types of lace. [1] [2] Braiding materials include natural and synthetic yarns, metal wires, leather tapes, and others.
In a horn gear braider, bobbins of thread pass one another to the left and right on pseudo-sinusoidal tracks. The bobbins are mounted on spool carriers that are driven by a series of horn gears. A horn gear is a notched disk driven by a spur gear below on the same shaft; bobbins are transferred between notches of adjacent gears. These gears lie below the track plate that the bobbin carriers ride on. The gears must be driven at multiple points on machines that use two or more bobbin sets and cross-shafts.
On a vertically oriented machine, the braided thread is taken up above the machine. The height and diameter of a guide ring affects the characteristics of the braided product. On horizontal machines, the braiding track plate and associated bobbins are rotated 90 degrees and the braided product is produced parallel to the ground. This enables large stiff braided cables to be output horizontally, which eliminates the need for factory buildings with tall ceilings.
Braiding machines, although they have an apparent complex movement of bobbins, are mechanically simple and robust. Modern versions are reliable and can operate for many hours or even days without attention. This enables factories with hundreds of machines to be operated by just a few workers, which reduces cost of labor and makes products cheaper and/or profits higher. These modern machines have incorporated electronic controls with automated controls. Although ropes, cords and fishing line are still the core products of most braiding companies there are many other products including webbing, cable shielding and automotive products such as reinforced brake lines.
The configuration of horn gears affects the shape of the final braid. A closed circle of gears can be used to make a hollow, circular rope. A single row or horseshoe-configuration can be used to create a flat braid. A grid of gears can be used to create solid-core braids, for example a square braid.
Maypole braiders, also known as circular braiders, are a type of horn gear braider used to produce hollow circular braids. The movement and order of fibers mimics that of ribbons used to decorate a maypole. [4] They were well suited to be driven by the steam engines of the industrial revolution and electric motor-powered machines were common by the beginning of the 20th century.
Common types of braiding machines work in much the same way as the process of decorating a maypole. At the start of decorating a maypole, an even number of ribbons are tied to the top of the pole. Each ribbon is held by one person, and the group of people form a ring about the base of the pole. Half the people travel clockwise and the other half counter clockwise. When passing people traveling in the opposite direction, individuals alternate passing to the right and to the left. This results in a downward forming braid on the pole. As the braid works its way down the pole, the ribbons become shorter and the angle of forming changes as the braid works lower on the pole. On a standard braiding machine, the supply lines are a constant angle and at a constant tension and hence the output braided product is uniform.
This type of braiding can be used to braid a sheathe over a cable as it is drawn through the middle of the machine and is used to produce shielded electrical cables and fibre reinforced hoses. This type of machine is also used to weave fibres such as carbon fibres onto a hollow substrate to produce high performance composite parts, being used in producing rigid lightweight components such as bike frames and yacht masts.
A square braider uses a grid of gears and intersecting tracks to produce a solid-core braid.
In the patent image on the right, the braider has two tracks, one shaded in green and one shaded in red. Four bobbin carriers slide along each track. The four carriers shaded in green travel around the green track in the counter-clockwise direction, and the four carriers shaded in red travel around the red track in the clockwise direction. As the two tracks cross over, the strands twist around each other, making a braid.
The carriers are pushed by four horn gears in the base plate. Each of the horn gears has a gear and a horn on a common shaft. The gears intermesh with each other, with alternate gears traveling in opposite directions. Each horn has four slots for pushing a bobbin carrier. The bobbin carriers get passed along from one horn to the next as they make their way along a track.
The speed of a horn gear braider is limited by the effort needed to force bobbin carriers to follow a serpentine path. In 1922, Simon W. Wardwell solved this problem by moving the strands of yarn instead of the carriers, allowing the carriers to follow a simple circular path. [6] The carriers are in two counter-rotating rings, while lever arms driven by a cam guide the strands of yarn from the outer ring up and down between the carriers of the inner ring. Because a lever arm has much less mass than a bobbin and carrier, the machine can run faster.
In a track and column braider, bobbin carriers follow tracks in a two dimensional array of rows and columns, instead of circular paths defined by horn gears. [7]
Spinning is a twisting technique to form yarn from fibers. The fiber intended is drawn out, twisted, and wound onto a bobbin. A few popular fibers that are spun into yarn other than cotton, which is the most popular, are viscose, animal fibers such as wool, and synthetic polyester. Originally done by hand using a spindle whorl, starting in the 500s AD the spinning wheel became the predominant spinning tool across Asia and Europe. The spinning jenny and spinning mule, invented in the late 1700s, made mechanical spinning far more efficient than spinning by hand, and especially made cotton manufacturing one of the most important industries of the Industrial Revolution.
A wire is a flexible, round, bar of metal.
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or other lubricants to withstand the stresses involved in sewing. Embroidery threads are yarns specifically designed for needlework. Yarn can be made of a number of natural or synthetic materials, and comes in a variety of colors and thicknesses. Although yarn may be dyed different colours, most yarns are solid coloured with a uniform hue.
A spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from fibres. It was fundamental to the cotton textile industry prior to the Industrial Revolution. It laid the foundations for later machinery such as the spinning jenny and spinning frame, which displaced the spinning wheel during the Industrial Revolution.
Carding is a mechanical process that disentangles, cleans and intermixes fibres to produce a continuous web or sliver suitable for subsequent processing. This is achieved by passing the fibres between differentially moving surfaces covered with "card clothing", a firm flexible material embedded with metal pins. It breaks up locks and unorganised clumps of fibre and then aligns the individual fibres to be parallel with each other. In preparing wool fibre for spinning, carding is the step that comes after teasing.
A braid is a complex structure or pattern formed by interlacing three or more strands of flexible material such as textile yarns, wire, or hair. The simplest and most common version is a flat, solid, three-stranded structure. More complex patterns can be constructed from an arbitrary number of strands to create a wider range of structures. The structure is usually long and narrow with each component strand functionally equivalent in zigzagging forward through the overlapping mass of the others. It can be compared with the process of weaving, which usually involves two separate perpendicular groups of strands.
A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similarly constructed cord, string, and twine.
Fibre-reinforced plastic is a composite material made of a polymer matrix reinforced with fibres. The fibres are usually glass, carbon, aramid, or basalt. Rarely, other fibres such as paper, wood, boron, or asbestos have been used. The polymer is usually an epoxy, vinyl ester, or polyester thermosetting plastic, though phenol formaldehyde resins are still in use.
In the textile arts, plying is a process of twisting one or more strings of yarn together to create a stronger yarn. Strands are twisted together in the direction opposite that in which they were spun. Plied yarns will not unravel, break, or degrade as easily as unplied yarns. When enough twist is added to the plies to counter the initial twist of each strand, the resulting yarn is "balanced", having no tendency to twist upon itself.
Metallic fibers are manufactured fibers composed of metal, metallic alloys, plastic-coated metal, metal-coated plastic, or a core completely covered by metal.
Textile manufacturing or textile engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods such as clothing, household items, upholstery and various industrial products.
The spinning mule is a machine used to spin cotton and other fibres. They were used extensively from the late 18th to the early 20th century in the mills of Lancashire and elsewhere. Mules were worked in pairs by a minder, with the help of two boys: the little piecer and the big or side piecer. The carriage carried up to 1,320 spindles and could be 150 feet (46 m) long, and would move forward and back a distance of 5 feet (1.5 m) four times a minute.
A ropewalk is a long straight narrow lane, or a covered pathway, where long strands of material are laid before being twisted into rope. Due to the length of some ropewalks, workers may use bicycles to get from one end to the other.
Open-end spinning is a technology for creating yarn without using a spindle. It was invented and developed in Czechoslovakia in Výzkumný ústav bavlnářský / Cotton Research Institute in Ústí nad Orlicí in 1963.
Textile manufacturing is one of the oldest human activities. The oldest known textiles date back to about 5000 B.C. In order to make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fibre from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning. The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving to create cloth. The machine used for weaving is the loom. Cloth is finished by what are described as wet process to become fabric. The fabric may be dyed, printed or decorated by embroidering with coloured yarns.
Ring spinning is a spindle-based method of spinning fibres, such as cotton, flax or wool, to make a yarn. The ring frame developed from the throstle frame, which in its turn was a descendant of Arkwright's water frame. Ring spinning is a continuous process, unlike mule spinning which uses an intermittent action. In ring spinning, the roving is first attenuated by using drawing rollers, then spun and wound around a rotating spindle which in its turn is contained within an independently rotating ring flyer. Traditionally ring frames could only be used for the coarser counts, but they could be attended by semi-skilled labour.
Bradford Industrial Museum, established 1974 in Moorside Mills, Eccleshill, Bradford, United Kingdom, specializes in relics of local industry, especially printing and textile machinery, kept in working condition for regular demonstrations to the public. There is a Horse Emporium in the old canteen block plus a shop in the mill, and entry is free of charge.
Three-dimensional composites use fiber preforms constructed from yarns or tows arranged into complex three-dimensional structures. These can be created from a 3D weaving process, a 3D knitting process, a 3D braiding process, or a 3D lay of short fibers. A resin is applied to the 3D preform to create the composite material. Three-dimensional composites are used in highly engineered and highly technical applications in order to achieve complex mechanical properties. Three-dimensional composites are engineered to react to stresses and strains in ways that are not possible with traditional composite materials composed of single direction tows, or 2D woven composites, sandwich composites or stacked laminate materials.
3D braided fabrics are fabrics in which yarn runs through the braid in all three directions, formed by inter-plaiting three orthogonal sets of yarn. The fiber architecture of three-dimensional braided fabrics provides high strength, stiffness, and structural integrity, making them suitable for a wide array of applications. 3D fabrics can be produced via weaving, knitting, and non-weaving processes.
Doubling is a textile industry term synonymous with combining. It can be used for various processes during spinning. During the carding stage, several sources of roving are doubled together and drawn, to remove variations in thickness. After spinning, yarn is doubled for many reasons. Yarn may be doubled to produce warp for weaving, to make cotton for lace, crochet and knitting. It is used for embroidery threads and sewing threads, for example: sewing thread is usually 6-cable thread. Two threads of spun 60s cotton are twisted together, and three of these double threads are twisted into a cable, of what is now 5s yarn. This is mercerised, gassed and wound onto a bobbin.
