BRAIDING

Intro
It began as a handicraft for the construction
of decorative fabrics. The limitations of
knitting and weaving made braiding an
important method of fabric formation in
textile composite, rope etc.

Limitations of other structures

The limitations of the weaving,

knitting and stitching processes
include:
poor shear resistance
limited strength in the primary
loading direction
inability to produce complex shaped
parts

Define Braiding
Braiding is a simple form of narrow
fabric construction. It is done by
intertwining of yarns in whatever
direction suited the maker's purpose.

3-D braiding
3-D braiding is an interesting concept of
creating a two dimensional array of
interconnected 2-D circular braids.

Types of braiding machine

3-D braids are formed on two basic types
of machines which differ only in their
method of yarn carrier displacement.
The horn gear type machines offer
improved braid speed over the Cartesian
machines.
Cartesian machines offer compact
machine size, comparatively low
development cost and braid architectural
versatility.

Uses of Braiding

Braiding is more significant for industrial fabrics than

consumer textiles.
Braiding is one of the major fabrication methods for
composite reinforcement structures, with increasing
applications of electrical wires and cables, harnesses,
hoses, industrial belts and surgical sutures.
Examples of the relatively new application area of braiding
include reinforcement structures of sporting goods
(baseball bats, golf clubs, water skis, snow skis),
aerospace and automotive parts.
Because of the special properties, braids can be found
(often hidden) in many different applications. Some
examples: Clothes and shoes, candle wicks, sash cords,
water ski ropes, mountaineering ropes, yachting ropes,
parachute lines, fishing nets, mooring lines, medical
applications such as catheters or dental floss, over braided
high-pressure tubes, ground cables or harnesses