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More from Major Matt Mason
The Big Braider Wraps Its Prey...
Just wandering through my hard drive and came up with this happy snap I took at Drexel back, oh, twenty years or so ago. Basically, this gizmo is a 144 carrier circular braider. What ya had to do was load each and every one of those bobbins with yarn (could be Kevlar, carbon fiber or, in this case, fiberglass), load a mandrel (no, not Barbara) into the thing and run it back and forth while the bobbins spun round and round. Sort of like a Maypole, writ very large. The object being braided wound up as a Formula SAE race car body, done as a near net shape composite (in other words, rather than laying up layers of laminate or blowing fiberglass into a mold, you made the fabric near the final shape).
The concept works pretty good, but repairing damage is a bitch and a half...
Anyhow, it's sorta like a HUGE spider wrapping up its prey, so I figured
queue would dig it. ;)
This pic wound up being used in a lot of promo materials for the Fibrous Materials Research Center at Drexel. The braider itself is out at the University of British Columbia, if memory serves, nowadays (after my former boss at Drexel retired and moved out there).
The concept works pretty good, but repairing damage is a bitch and a half...
Anyhow, it's sorta like a HUGE spider wrapping up its prey, so I figured
queue would dig it. ;)This pic wound up being used in a lot of promo materials for the Fibrous Materials Research Center at Drexel. The braider itself is out at the University of British Columbia, if memory serves, nowadays (after my former boss at Drexel retired and moved out there).
Category Photography / Still Life
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 694 x 610px
File Size 95.6 kB
That looks freakin' awesome! ^__^
I'm not familiar with fiber material production so I don't know how good or efficient this is these days, but this method gets a huge plus for coolness in my book! :D
Also, it reminds me a bit of the machine they used to pull the muscles onto the skeleton of Leeloo in 'the 5th element'. ;)
I'm not familiar with fiber material production so I don't know how good or efficient this is these days, but this method gets a huge plus for coolness in my book! :D
Also, it reminds me a bit of the machine they used to pull the muscles onto the skeleton of Leeloo in 'the 5th element'. ;)
Fiber materials tend to have a higher tensile strength while being much lighter. This means it's far more resistant to stress conditions and much more economical in terms of resources, using both less material and requiring less fuel to move its weight, being lighter. Especially famous for using fiber construction are the air- and spacecraft developed by the Rutan brothers. :)
But as MMM said, it's a bitch and a half to repair-- Once compromised, it's hard to repair back to its original tensile strength-- You almost have to recycle and start over again, which isn't all that much fun!
d.m.f.
But as MMM said, it's a bitch and a half to repair-- Once compromised, it's hard to repair back to its original tensile strength-- You almost have to recycle and start over again, which isn't all that much fun!
d.m.f.
Oh I'm familiar with the pros and cons of the materials fiberglass and carbon fiber, and that's it's used in airplanes, boats, high performance cars, flagpoles, arrows (I have a couple for my bow) etc etc.
What I meant was, I don't know much about how the production goes and whether this method is efficient compared to other methods of making things in fibers (mmm mentioned laminating and blow it into a mold), nor do I know which advances have been made in production methods and efficiency since he took this picture and if this method now is dated.
Even if it is (I kinda hope not), this method gets major props for the sheer coolness factor of that net-wheel-thingy. ^_^
What I meant was, I don't know much about how the production goes and whether this method is efficient compared to other methods of making things in fibers (mmm mentioned laminating and blow it into a mold), nor do I know which advances have been made in production methods and efficiency since he took this picture and if this method now is dated.
Even if it is (I kinda hope not), this method gets major props for the sheer coolness factor of that net-wheel-thingy. ^_^
Welp, you can peruse this if you like:
http://books.google.com/books?id=d52iWPrzOzUC&pg=PA532&lpg=PA532&dq=2-d+braided+composites&source=bl&ots=oJh16CRmmH&sig=DQJZJMl1Zw-dvkJvc1m4ZLHbKuA&hl=en&ei=KzR_Stz-HI_mM8WtgNoC&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8#v=onepage&q=2-d%20braided%20composites&f=false
I actually drew some of the pics and typeset some of the equations in that one. ;)
http://books.google.com/books?id=d52iWPrzOzUC&pg=PA532&lpg=PA532&dq=2-d+braided+composites&source=bl&ots=oJh16CRmmH&sig=DQJZJMl1Zw-dvkJvc1m4ZLHbKuA&hl=en&ei=KzR_Stz-HI_mM8WtgNoC&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8#v=onepage&q=2-d%20braided%20composites&f=false
I actually drew some of the pics and typeset some of the equations in that one. ;)
The concept works pretty good, but repairing damage is a bitch and a half...
We're looking at a race car body, those aren't designed for ease of repair, they're designed for SPEED. You wand to lose every ounce possible, because it's the performance on the track that matters, not the ulcers of the bodyshop crew.
We're looking at a race car body, those aren't designed for ease of repair, they're designed for SPEED. You wand to lose every ounce possible, because it's the performance on the track that matters, not the ulcers of the bodyshop crew.
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