ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES | MARCH 2025 25 Over the past decade, the use of braided reinforcements has become a cost-effective method to produce high-performance, highvolume composites. Braid allows for the creation of composite parts with an efficient fiber architecture and provides composite part manufacturers with a material that is easily handled and that results in fewer processing steps and less waste than woven alternatives[1,2]. Braid has applications in a variety of fields, including aerospace, automotive, medical, and civil engineering. Within these fields, braiding technology has been used to build jet engine fan cases, aircraft fuselage frames, jet engine stator vanes, rocket nozzles, aircraft propellers, high-pressure air beams, EXPLORING THE USE OF BRAID IN ADVANCED COMPOSITE STRUCTURES Braid allows for the creation of composite parts with an efficient fiber architecture and provides manufacturers with a material that results in fewer processing steps and less waste than woven alternatives. Alexandra Ivers, Molly Dingeldein, Stephanie Kramig, and Nathan Jessie A&P Technology, Cincinnati and include a spur gear bottom and a slotted gear top. The slotted gear top may be referred to as a horn disk. Each horn gear assembly rotates in either the counterclockwise or clockwise direction, and horn gears adjacent to one another rotate in opposition[2,3]. The movement of a single spool carrier from one horn gear to another is defined by a sinusoidal slotted path in the track plate as well as the particular slots of the horn disk with which the spool carrier interacts. A typical horn disk is comprised of four slots, and spool carriers may be placed in half of automotive wheels, prosthetics, and composite bridge repairs. BRAIDING MACHINERY A maypole braiding machine is a standard machine design used to create braided sleevings (Fig. 1). A typical maypole-style braiding machine is comprised of a set of traditional parts that include a circular track plate, a gear train located on or below the track plate, a set of spool or bobbin carriers, a forming device, and a take-up mechanism (Fig. 2). The individual gears of the gear train are called horn gears Fig. 1 — Formation of a braided structure on a standard maypole-style braiding machine. Courtesy of A&P Technology. Fig. 2 — Standard components of a maypole braiding machine in which a portion of the top plate has been removed for illustration purposes, as well as two possible machine orientations. Courtesy of A&P Technology.
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