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AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
InventorGary L. Farley
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A method and apparatus for fabricating straight or curved planar or three-dimensional (C channel, for example) fabric for fabrication into composite structures. In the first embodiment, the fill yarns are inserted between layers of warp yarns, and a canted or curved reed, depending on the desired orientation of the fill yarns, is used to compact or "beat-up" the fill yarns. In the second embodiment, the warp yarns of the fabric are curved using a conical or a combination of conical and cylindrical rollers to effect differential fabric take-up of the warp yarns for obtaining a constant radius of curvature of the warp yarns. In a third embodiment, a clamping bar fabric take-up device is used to effect the differential fabric take-up of the warp yarns for obtaining straight warp yarns, curved warp yarns with a constant radius of curvature, curved warp yarns with a non-constant radius of curvature, or some combination of straight and curved warp yarns. In a fourth embodiment, for forming the flanges of the curved C channel, the warp yarns are alternately inserted through adjacent dent wires of the reed to permit vertical weaving of the flanges.
A method for fabricating a three-dimensional fabric having a c-shaped cross section with a web and flange that can be formed into a preform, from a plurality of warp yarns and a plurality of interwoven fill yarns, comprising:
An apparatus for fabricating a three-dimensional fabric having a c-shaped cross section with a web and flange that can be formed into a preform, from a plurality of warp yarns and a plurality of interwoven fill yarns, comprising:
A method for fabricating a curved flat fabric from a plurality of warp yarns and a plurality of interwoven fill yarns comprising:
An apparatus for fabricating a curved flat fabric from a plurality of warp yarns and a plurality of interwoven fill yarns comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.