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Pultrusion of braids
(2016)
ITMA 2015 which took place from November 12-19, 2015, in Milan/Italy showed new record results. The number of exhibitors rose in comparison to ITMA 2011 by 25% to nearly 1,700 exhibitors, and visitors and exhibition space rose by 20%. A survey by the German Textile Machinery Association (VDMA) and interviews at the fair conducted by the author showed that the exhibiting companies were highly satisfied with the quality and the number of discussions and that many new customers could be acquired. Furthermore, the VDMA survey showed that 74% of the German companies already concluded negotiations and contracts at the show. Of particular note were the transactions of the Belgian weaving machinery manufacturer Picanol, which sold hundreds of machines directly at the fair. The estimatons regarding aftersales were also expected to be good to very good. This is a very welcome development in comparison to both preceding ITMA shows.
Soft, mechanically compliant robots are developed to safely interact with a “human environment”. The use of textiles and fibrous (composite-) materials for the fabrication of robots opens up new possibilities for “softness/compliance” and safety in human-robot interaction. Besides external motion monitoring systems, textiles allow on-board monitoring and early prediction, or detection, of robot-human contact. The use of soft fibers and textiles for robot skins can increase the acceptance of robots in human surroundings. Novel topology optimization tools, materials, processing technologies and biomimetic engineering allow developing ultra-light-weight, multifunctional, and adaptive structures.
Today fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) are well established in manifold technical applications, because they provide advantages such as low weight, high stiffness, high strength and chemical resistance. The broad range of production methods starts from cost effective mass production up to the manufacturing of ultra-lightweight composite parts.
Biological materials are also usually composite materials: Higher plants or bones of higher animals are hierarchically organized and are composed of only a few materials such as lignin, cellulose, apatite and collagen. The large variety and the mechanical properties of natural tissues results primarily from an optimized fiber lay-up to adapt to the mechanical requirements of the respective “installation circumstances”.
Advanced lightweight technical solutions need strong materials and structurally optimized structures. In many industries, the structural optimization by an appropriate fiber lay-up has become an important method to save more weight. Corresponding software tools help to optimize topology/shape (e.g. Mattheck: CAO/SKO, Co. Altair: Optistruct), mainly using finite element analyzing technology.
The combination of strong lightweight materials, optimized topology and sophisticated fiber lay-up is also present in many bio-mineralized planktonic shells — for instance diatoms and radiolaria—but also in glass sponges.
Following it is shown, how the high weight-related mechanical properties of plankton are biomimetically transferred into ultra-lightweight technical structures.