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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.
Although these machines run smoothly and quickly, they must be built for a particular type of braid and are not easily reconfigured.
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]
Automatic high speed braiding machines are normally equipped with programmable logic controllers (PLC) and automatic mass-adjusting and motor-driven yarn feeders, so as to simplify operation. Compared to normal braiding machines, high speed braiding machines save costs from labour, electricity, and time.
Products from braiding machines are everywhere in life, like shipbuilding, national defense industry, port operations, high pressure and magnet shielding wires and pipes, decorative ropes and belts, shoelace, elastic ropes and belts, cables, etc.
There are non-traditional machines that have a grid array of thread carriers that under computer control can braid over complex shapes.
Spinning is a twisting technique to form yarn from fibers. The fiber intended is drawn out, twisted, and wound onto a bobbin. Originally done by hand using a spindle whorl, the spinning wheel became 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 made cotton manufacturing one of the centers of the Industrial Revolution.
A wire is a single usually cylindrical, flexible strand or rod of metal. Wires are used to bear mechanical loads or electricity and telecommunications signals. Wire is commonly formed by drawing the metal through a hole in a die or draw plate. Wire gauges come in various standard sizes, as expressed in terms of a gauge number. The term 'wire' is also used more loosely to refer to a bundle of such strands, as in "multistranded wire", which is more correctly termed a wire rope in mechanics, or a cable in electricity.
A braid is a complex structure or pattern formed by interlacing two or more strands of flexible material such as textile yarns, wire, or hair.
A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibers 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, 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.
Textile manufacturing 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. Overall many things can be made with cotton not just clothing.
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. It was invented between 1775 and 1779 by Samuel Crompton. The self-acting (automatic) mule was patented by Richard Roberts in 1825. At its peak there were 50,000,000 mule spindles in Lancashire alone. Modern versions are still in niche production and are used to spin woollen yarns from noble fibres such as cashmere, ultra-fine merino and alpaca for the knitware market.
Parachute cord is a lightweight nylon kernmantle rope originally used in the suspension lines of parachutes. This cord is now used as a general purpose utility cord. This versatile cord was used by astronauts during the 82nd Space Shuttle mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
Kumihimo is a traditional Japanese artform of making braids and cords. Literally meaning "gathered threads", kumihimo are made by interlacing reels of yarn, commonly silk, with the use of traditional, specialised looms - either a marudai or a takadai (高台).
Cotton-spinning machinery refers to machines which process prepared cotton roving into workable yarn or thread. Such machinery can be dated back centuries. During the 18th and 19th centuries, as part of the Industrial Revolution cotton-spinning machinery was developed to bring mass production to the cotton industry. Cotton spinning machinery was installed in large factories, commonly known as cotton mills.
The manufacture of textiles is one of the oldest of human technologies. To make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fiber from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning. The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving, which turns yarn into cloth. The machine used for weaving is the loom. For decoration, the process of colouring yarn or the finished material is dyeing. For more information of the various steps, see textile manufacturing.
A winding machine or winder is a machine for wrapping string, twine, cord, thread, yarn, rope, wire, ribbon, tape, etc. onto a spool, bobbin, reel, etc.
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 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.
Silk throwing is the industrial process wherein silk that has been reeled into skeins, is cleaned, receives a twist and is wound onto bobbins. The yarn is now twisted together with threads, in a process known as doubling. Colloquially silk throwing can be used to refer to the whole process: reeling, throwing and doubling. Silk had to be thrown to make it strong enough to be used as organzine for the warp in a loom, or tram for weft.
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.
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