To produce effective structural composite parts it is important that the fibre directions are as close as possible to the load path.

One technique is filament winding, where resin impregnated fibres are wound on a mandrel and cured.

Our approach for medium and larger size series is preforms made by the overbraiding process, followed by Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM).

The advantages in comparison to filament winding

• Better crash properties (due to weave construction)
• Less delamination by woven structure and integrated UD fibres
• Faster preform production, covering in one pass (see movie))
• More complex shapes are possible (excentrix shapes)
• Posibility to feed in 0º UD (directly from creel)
• Square products are possible with less voids after injection with RTM.

Our 96-carrier overbraider is computer controlled. Because of this the fibre angles can be controlled very well, also with complex shaped cores.
The cores can be made out of foam, metal with low melting point or blow moulded thermoplastic.

Braiding angles can be controlled between 20º and 85º. Besides of this we can feed in fibres in the 0º direction (48 positions in length direction). The 0º fibres are very effective with bending loads, while the +/- 45º are effective for torsion loads.

Movie

Take a look at our overbraiding movie where we are overbraiding the preform in the picture below. The preform is an example of what is possible (there is much more possible!). The preform has several changing diameters and has also an excentric shape at the end.

At each position we are able to change the fibre angle during overbraiding. This could be done for changing the load paths or for changing the thickness of the braid. The overbraiding is done with Computer Numerical Control and therefore reproducable!!!

Download overbraiding movie (7,16 Mb)

1. Advise
Send us a drawing or sketch of the preform you want to make, together with the fibre angles desired. We can advise you whether our process is feasible or not.

2. Prototype
The lay out of our 96 carrier machine is very flexible. We can make prototypes up to 8 meter length, with glass-, aramid-, carbon and twintex fibres or combinations thereof.
The diameter of this machine is limited to +/- 200 mm.
For bigger products scale trials are possible.

3. Seri production of preforms
We can produce your preforms on a foam or blowmoulded thermoplastic core.

4. Supply of a complete turnkey braiding installation, including transfer of braiding know-how.
This is in case you want to make you own preforms for large serie production in house.
We have recently supplied a 216 carrier overbraiding installation in Europe (6 meter high/ 10 meters long).

If you are interested contact Eurocarbon and we will be happy to discuss the technical and economical details with you.