New developments and applications of textile reinforcements for composite materials

A more extensive use of fibre-reinforced composites can be achieved by the reduction in production costs. The friction spinning process dan be effectively used to produce hybrid yams with integrated matrix material. Two-dimensional textile preforms can be manufactured in a rational way as knitted multiaxial layers or as woven narrow fabrics. Fibre reinforcements for three-dimensional composites with varying cross-sections can directly be produced without a laying process by a new knitting method or a 3D-rotational braiding procedure. The above technologies have been discussed in this paper.