METHOD OF FABRICATING A TEXTILE STRUCTURE OF VARYING THICKNESS
A method of fabricating a textile structure of varying thickness, the method including weaving a fiber texture in the form of a strip and winding the fiber texture under tension onto a mandrel, the fiber texture including a greater-thickness portion presenting greater thickness. During winding of the fiber texture on the mandrel, an interleaving element is interposed between adjacent turns of the fiber texture on the mandrel, the interleaving element extending in the width direction of the fiber texture over a portion of the texture that lies outside the greater-thickness portion. The interleaving element presents, over the portion of the texture situated outside the greater-thickness portion, a thickness that corresponds at least to the difference between the thickness of the greater-thickness portion and the thickness of the portion of the texture situated outside the greater-thickness portion.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/277,078, filed Jan. 11, 2016, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
FIELDThe present invention relates to a method of fabricating a textile structure of varying thickness that can be used particularly, but not exclusively, for making the fiber reinforcement of an aeroengine fan casing out of composite material (fiber reinforcement densified by a matrix).
BACKGROUNDAs shown in
The fiber texture 500 is wound onto the mandrel 550 under tension. This winding under tension serves firstly to apply a little takeup tension on the warp yarns or strands for weaving, and secondly to apply a large amount of tension in the winding needed to debulk the preform. The tension exerted by the mandrel 550 on the fiber texture 500 should preferably be constant throughout weaving so as to avoid any undesirable stresses and deformations in the texture.
In order to keep tension constant and uniform over the fiber texture throughout its weaving, it is necessary to control the length of the warp yarns or strands taken up during weaving. When the fiber texture for winding is of varying thickness, it becomes difficult to control the length of the warp yarns or strands as winding progresses. As shown in
An aspect of the invention seeks to avoid such drawbacks, and for this purpose it proposes a method of fabricating a textile structure of varying thickness, the method comprising using a loom to weave a fiber texture in the form of a strip extending lengthwise along a longitudinal axis and widthwise along an axis perpendicular to the longitudinal axis, and winding the fiber texture under tension at the outlet from the loom onto a mandrel, the fiber texture including a greater-thickness portion presenting greater thickness, the method being characterized in that, during winding of the fiber texture on the mandrel, an interleaving element is interposed between adjacent turns of the fiber texture on the mandrel, the interleaving element extending in the width direction of the fiber texture over a portion of the texture that lies outside the greater-thickness portion and, over the portion of the texture situated outside the greater-thickness portion, it presents a thickness that corresponds at least to the difference between the thickness of said greater-thickness portion and the thickness of the portion of the texture situated outside said at least one greater-thickness portion. The interleaving element is made of a material that is deformable and waterproof. The material may in particular be an elastomer such as neoprene.
Thus, the method of an embodiment of the invention makes it possible to compensate for the thickness variation present in the fiber texture while it is being wound, thus avoiding any increase in the taken-up length of the warp yarns or strands in the greater-thickness portion compared with the taken-up length of the warp yarns or strands present in the portion(s) of texture situated outside the greater-thickness portion. Consequently, the ratio between the length of the warp yarns or strands present in the greater-thickness portion over the length of the warp yarns or strands present in the portion(s) situated outside the greater-thickness portion remains constant throughout the weaving and winding of the fiber texture.
An aspect of the invention also provides a textile structure of varying thickness comprising a fiber texture wound on a mandrel and including a greater-thickness portion presenting greater thickness, the structure being characterized in that an interleaving element is interposed between adjacent turns of the fiber texture on the mandrel, the interleaving element extending in the width direction of the fiber texture over a portion of the texture that lies outside the greater-thickness portion and, over the portion of the texture situated outside the greater-thickness portion, it presents a thickness that corresponds at least to the difference between the thickness of the greater-thickness portion and the thickness of the portion of the texture situated outside said greater-thickness portion. The interleaving element is made of a material that is deformable and waterproof, which material may in particular be constituted by an elastomer.
Other characteristics and benefits of the invention appear from the following description of particular implementations of the invention given as non-limiting examples, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
The invention applies in general to fabricating textile structures obtained from woven fiber textures having at least one portion of greater thickness, which fiber textures are made by three-dimensional weaving between a plurality of layers of warp yarns or strands and a plurality of layers of weft yarns or strands, and they are then wound onto a mandrel at the outlet from a loom.
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, and as shown in
The use of an elastomer layer as an interleaving element is beneficial in that it is easily deformable around the radius of the mandrel while presenting good resistance to compression in the thickness direction. The elastomer layer is easily manufactured to have a variety of shapes so as to match the shape and/or the varying thickness of the fiber texture.
The interleaving element used in the method of the invention for compensating the thickness difference in the fiber texture while it is being wound on the storage mandrel may be made using elements other than a layer of elastomer. In general manner, any element presenting at least the following properties can be used:
capacity for deforming to match the radius of the storage mandrel;
poorly or completely incompressible under the tensions applied in weaving; and
no risk of damaging fibers of the texture.
Claims
1. A method of fabricating a textile structure of varying thickness, the method comprising using a loom to weave a fiber texture in the form of a strip extending lengthwise along a longitudinal axis and widthwise along an axis perpendicular to the longitudinal axis, and winding the fiber texture under tension at the outlet from the loom onto a mandrel, the fiber texture including a greater-thickness portion presenting greater thickness, wherein, during winding of the fiber texture on the mandrel, an interleaving element is interposed between adjacent turns of the fiber texture on the mandrel, the interleaving element extending in the width direction of the fiber texture over a portion of the texture that lies outside said greater-thickness portion and, over the portion of the texture situated outside the greater-thickness portion, wherein the interleaving element presents a thickness that corresponds at least approximately to a difference between a thickness of said greater-thickness portion and a thickness of the portion of the texture situated outside said greater-thickness portion, and wherein the interleaving element is made of a material that is deformable.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the deformable material is constituted by an elastomer.
3. A textile structure of varying thickness comprising a fiber texture wound on a mandrel and including a greater-thickness portion presenting greater thickness, wherein an interleaving element is interposed between adjacent turns of the fiber texture on the mandrel, the interleaving element extending in a width direction of the fiber texture over a portion of the texture that lies outside said greater-thickness portion and, over the portion of the texture situated outside the greater-thickness portion, wherein the interleaving element presents a thickness that corresponds at least to a difference between a thickness of said greater-thickness portion and a thickness of the portion of the texture situated outside said greater-thickness portion, and wherein the interleaving element is made of a material that is deformable and waterproof.
4. The textile structure according to claim 3, wherein the deformable and waterproof material is constituted by an elastomer.
Type: Application
Filed: Jan 11, 2017
Publication Date: Jul 13, 2017
Inventors: Jérémy HELLOT (PARIS), Dominique Marie Christian COUPE (SAINT FARGEAU PONTHIERRY), Hubert Jean Marie FABRE (MELUN), Antoine PHELIPPEAU (ALFORTVILLE), Micah Christian GUMMEL (EAST KINGSTON, NH)
Application Number: 15/403,613