3WEAVE®

Table of Contents

Non-crimp 3D Orthogonal Fiber Architecture

  • Warp yarns are straight

  • Fill yarns
    • Top and bottom fill yarns may have slight undulation where Z yarns cross
    • Inner fill yarns are straight.
  • Z yarns
    • Wrap around the top or bottom fill yarns during each fill insertion
    • Vertical or near vertical in body of fabric

Structural Advantages

  • Z yarns arrest crack growth between layers of composite.
  • Double Cantilever Beam Test Of S-2 Glass/Vinyl Ester Composite.
  • Critical strain energy release rate (CSERR) increase of up to 20X with 2-3% through-thickness fiber content by weight.

Manufacturing Advantages

  • Infuses quickly.
  • High level of conform-ability.

Preform Shape Possibilities

  • Z yarns can be selectively placed through the fabric, i.e., some all the way through, others only partially through.
  • This leads to integral fabrics with combined single and multiple layers.
  • Many flat shapes can be folded out to make T stiffeners, H joints, Pi (P) joints, etc.
  • More elaborate truss shape is also possible

Hybrid Preforms

  • Yarns can be mixed through the thickness, along the width, or along the length.
  • 3TEX has woven polyester, Kevlar, Dyneema, Spectra, E-glass, S-glass, PAN carbon fibers, Pitch based carbon fibers, SiC, alumina (Nextel 610 and 720), quartz, copper wires, NiCr wires, Ni wires, stainless steel yarns and others.