THE COMPUTERIZED WEAVING OF PREFORMS FOR COMPOSITES .2. FEATURE ANALYSIS OF THE FLATTENED STRUCTURES

In Part I of this series of papers, it was shown how the three-dimensi onal design of the target preform is transformed into a substantially two-dimensional one which can then be woven on a conventional weaving machine, The present paper explains how the features of the flattened structure are analysed for the purpose of generating the weaving instr uctions, In the weaving of preforms, the traditional shuttle loom offe rs many advantages over the shuttleless one and therefore, with regard to contents and terminology, this paper is orientated primarily but n ot exclusively towards shuttle weaving. Where shuttleless weaving is a ppropriate, the term 'shuttle' can be taken to refer to any weft inser tion element such as a projectile, rapier or air-jet.