Engineering knits for versatile technical applications: Some insights on recent researches

Abstract

Knits have been playing a predominant role in the area of technical textiles, as recent researches point out. In one of the areas, knits have been produced for advanced textile preforms, wherein they have been knitted into net shapes and have advantages such as high conformability/drapeability to accommodate complex shape moulds, and good permeability. The advanced composite manufacturing processes demand the use of fashionable near net-shaped preforms. Flat knitting technology is especially suited for the production of such products like biaxial-reinforced multi-layer weft-knitted fabrics. Also, natural fiber knits have been developed using flat weft knitting technology in geo textiles, wherein the fabrics could be designed to suit varied soil types and conditions. These have indeed proved to be more economical and superior to their synthetic counterparts. Recently, knit scaffolds made from Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) yarns have been developed for urinary bladder reconstruction. They hold promise for other medical applications such as cardiovascular prosthesis and compression bandaging. Fabrics have been knit with copper core yarns and evaluated for their electromagnetic shielding effectiveness. The shielding effectiveness has been found to increase with factors such as tightness, wale density, and course density. Also, the interlock knitted fabric has better electromagnetic shielding effectiveness in comparison with rib and plain knitted fabrics. Warp knit coupled with stitch bonding technology has been able to effectively produce reinforcement textiles for composite materials. In yet another interesting development, weft knit and braided polypropylene has been used as stents for treating cardiac arterial diseases. The knit stents have proved to be advantageous over the metallic ones with

Textile technologies for the manufacture of three-dimensional textile preforms

“…The formability and design capabilities of knitted structures makes them ideal for reinforcements of complex-shaped preforms and has led to their wider acceptance for composite manufacture (Leong et al, 2000;Gokarneshan et al, 2011;De Araújo et al, 2004). However, the loop structure leads to its main disadvantage of distortion during manufacture, resulting in inferior strength and stiffness properties as compared to woven preforms (Leong et al, 1998).…”

Evaluating the performance of geocells made from needle-punched nonwoven layers in the bearing capacity of reinforced soil

“…Effect of geocell application on the bearing capacity of reinforced soil has received attention of researchers over the recent years (Avesani Neto, Bueno, & Futai, 2013;Dash, Krishnaswamy, & Rajagopal, 2001;Dash, Rajagopal, & Krishnaswamy, 2004;Gokarneshan, Varadarajan, Sentil kumar, Balamurugan, & Anita Rachel, 2011;Madhavi Latha & Murthy, 2007;Yamamoto & Otani, 2002). Dash et al (2001) investigated the effect of geometry and material of geocells made from geogrids on the bearing capacity of reinforced soil.…”

Virtual metal model for fast computation of shielding effectiveness of blended electromagnetic interference shielding fabric

“…However, currently the study about the SE of the blended EMI shielding fabric is mainly focuses on the model construction [16], SE variation analysis [17][18][19], SE testing method [20][21][22], fabric performance testing [23][24][25][26], and the development of the EMI shielding fabric [27][28][29]. In those studies, the SE of fabric was obtained by experiments; there were not a computation model and functions.…”