JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #81 - May/June 2013 - 54

3D fabrics

3D-shaped multilayer fabrics for highperformance, multifunctional composites
Fibre-reinforced plastics (FRP) in the form of
continuous fibre-reinforced thermoplastic composites exhibit a great potential for mass production of complex, load-bearing and recyclable
components in automotive and mechanical
engineering.
The use of thermoplastic matrix materials
makes it possible to manufacture lightweight,
high-quality complex-shape composites costefficiently and with high productivity. To ensure
the demanded short cycle times while simultaneously guaranteeing highly specific properties
of structural components, the most suitable
method is hot pressing, using deep drapable
multilayered and 3D-shaped thermoplastic preforms based on thermoplastic hybrid yarns. The
advantages of glass fibre/PP hybrid yarns are
their homogenous combination of continuous
filaments, as well as their great yarn compaction, which permits further textile technological
processing. Commercially available yarn materials can be used in widely varying forms, and
the individual intra-yarn content percentages
can be adjusted to preference over an extensive
range. 3D-shaped multilayer woven fabrics are
suited for the reinforcement of higher-gauge
FRP due to the use of thicker and preferably
compact fabrics, as their multilayered structure
helps minimise the usual stacking of multiple
individual reinforcement layers. In this study,
hybrid yarns and composite sheets made of
multilayer woven fabrics are tested according to
their mechanical properties.
54 jec composites magazine / No81 May - June 2013

By
M. Sc. Monireh Fazeli, M. Sc. Adil Mountasir,
Dr.-Ing. Gerald Hoffmann,
Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Dipl.-Wirt. Ing. Chokri Cherif, Directorf
Institute of Textile Machinery and High Performance Material
Technology, Technische Universität Dresden

dvanced high-tech polymer composites combine the
superior properties of the reinforcement material (e.g.
glass) with the ultra-light weight and low cost of polymer
matrix materials. Nowadays, these properties are used, for instance, in aircraft structural components to achieve high strength
and stiffness combined with light weight, significantly lowering
the overall weight of the vehicle and therefore increasing its
energy efficiency [1-3]. In particular, textile-reinforced thermoplastic polymer components (TRTC) with continuous-fibre
reinforcement in the form of multilayer woven fabrics display
enhanced performance, compared to short-fibre-reinforced
composites. They also allow for a better control of the reinforcement material distribution, and can be easily tailored to
obtain customized material properties. In spite of the impressive
progress in research on textile-reinforced thermoset polymer
components (TRPC) during the past years, they are still only
used in a number of selected applications (e.g. aeronautics and
aerospace, high-value sports equipment, etc.). Although TRPCs
possess a huge potential for widespread use in many mass
markets and for the introduction of novel applications, their
use remains hindered by the wide range of possible constituents and their processing difficulties, their high cost due to
slow, inflexible and expensive production processes, the mostly
manual draping and lay-up processes, and the lack of flexibility
in the production of complex 3D preforms [4-6].
Figure 1 shows a schematic representation of the EU-funded
3D-LightTrans project approach, in comparison with the stateof-the-art processes used nowadays. It provides a comprehensive overview of the progress beyond state-of-the-art introduced
by 3D-LightTrans.

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #81 - May/June 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #81 - May/June 2013