Tubular fabrics have many applications. Tubular fabrics are used in pipe repair, permanent bridge construction and repair, temporary bridges, temporary structures for military uses or civilian disaster relief as well as many other civil engineering applications. Tubular fabrics are also used frequently in aerospace applications from structural components to gaskets. The uses for tubular fabrics are about as limited as your imagination.
In the past, tubular fabrics have typically been produced using braiding machines. This is an acceptable method for some uses; however, braiding machines are typically limited to a fiber orientation of +/- 45 degrees or 60 degrees. Unlike braided fabrics, Textum’s unique woven tubular fabrics have fibers oriented 0/90 degrees offering exceptional hoop strength along the entire length of the fabric.
Additionally, these fabrics can be shaped on loom to accommodate our customer’s specific applications. A wide variety of shapes and sizes are possible. For example, a curved seamless tube can be woven to set inner and outer diameters. The tube can be constructed in such a way that it will conform to a selected diameter if inflated. Additionally, half tube or curved “U” shaped fabrics can be woven. An example application for this fabric would be a fan blade containment shroud on a jet engine. Textum’s unique tubular weaving technology allows for fabrics to be woven with specific predetermined shapes to their cross section allowing for a close fit to an irregular shaped mandrel.
Contact Textum today and let our engineers help you design a tubular fabric for your specific application.
