Sheet forming of woven fabric composite by combined cyclic stretch and deep drawing

The manufacturing of composites often requires transformation of 2-D fabrics into various structural 3-D shapes through preform processing without over straining of the yarns or wrinkling. Sheet forming of woven fabric composite by combined cyclic stretch and deep drawing was suggested. In order to prevent the wrinkling, the geometrical and mechanical properties of fabric should be chosen to get the final form of the prepregs beforehand. Geometrical investigation of the final bagged form dimensions are based on geometrical aspects of the wrapping of the fabric. In this study, an approach was proposed to form the reinforcement fabric composite through the dynamic bagging of the fabric by the application of cyclic stretching on the fabric during formation of 3-D reinforcement structure in hot environment. The dimensions of the flat fabric were calculated and the parameters of the forming process analyzed in two cases: hemisphere and flat top cone shape.