Warp control devices and tension for triaxial woven fabric with carbon fiber

In the weaving process of triaxial woven fabric (TWF), warp yarns need to be moved in different directions at each weaving step, which makes it difficult to control the warp tension. Furthermore, the friction of carbon fiber will lead to fuzzing and fracture of yarns in the manufacturing process, which brings challenges to the weaving of TWF with carbon fiber. Here, we have designed a warp control system for weaving TWF with carbon fiber. It includes a let-off mechanism and fabric winding device, which have been demonstrated to realize the continuous weaving of TWF with different specifications of carbon fiber (1k, 3k, 6k, 12k, 24k). The let-off mechanism meets the needs of moving the warp at each weaving step and keeping the carbon fiber in its the original shape. The compensation length (L c ) and warp tension during interweaving could be adjusted by the polyester filament and the number of weights ( n ), respectively. The fabric winding device can take up the formed fabric by controlling the stepping motor. Moreover, the relationships between the control parameters of the stepping motor (n(real)) and the width of carbon fiber ( b ) have been established.