Robotic approach to textile preforming for composites

Technical textiles offer high-value engineering applications for the traditional textile sector which is generally viewed as a low-cost and high-volume commodity industry. This paper reviews the application of textiles in fibre-reinforced composites and identifies key challenges to the textile industry in order to serve this market. While traditional textile machinery may be adopted for producing 2D broadcloth reinforcements, novel machines/machine modifications are necessary for producing 3D textile preforms. In this paper, a robotic approach to 3D textile preforming has also been proposed.