3D-Weaving | Manufacturing Process of 3D-Weaving | Application of 3DWeaving Fabric

 3D-Weaving

3D-Weaving is a complete new concept in case of weaving. The first method of 3D woven fabric denotes 3 Dimensional fabrics, that is length, width and breadth. In 3 Dimensional fabrics, the thickness is an important criterion. Ordinary fabrics also have length, width and breadth, but in the 3 Dimensional fabrics, the thickness is much more than ordinary fabric. The thickness is achieved by forming multiplayer using multi series of warp and multi series of weft, which are intersecting at regular 90o angle as in usual cloth weaving principle.

It cannot be performed with existing traditional methods and machines. It interlaces a multiple layer warp with multiple horizontal wefts and multiple vertical wefts producing directly shell, solid and tubular types of fully interlaced 3D fabrics with countless cross-sectional profiles.

First demonstrated in 1997, Dual-Directional (D-D) Shedding System is indispensable for performing 3D-weaving. This path breaking development has advanced the technology of weaving to a new dimension for the first time in its more than 27000 years of history.

Manufacturing Technology of 3D-Weaving
Special looms are required to operate the warp threads in 60o angle for weaving 3Dr-3 Directional fabrics. But the 3 Dimensional -3Dm- fabric can be woven by using ordinary loom with usual weaving principle-shedding, picking, beating - by having multi layers of warp and multi layers of weft. Even though the treble cloth with 3 series of warp and weft could be called 3Dm fabrics, in general, minimum 4 series of warp and weft are used in weaving to form several layers, one above the other to get the sufficient thickness resulting into 3 Dimensional fabric.
As per the principle of weft Tapestry fabric, to weave 3Dm fabrics, it is required to use one series of stitching warp and multi series of separating warp as per the number of layers to be formed. 

 As seen from the cross section, the stitching warp passes from top to bottom and bottom to top but all the separating warp lies almost straight and hence the stitching warp takes up more length than the separating warp. Therefore, the stitching warp is brought from a loose tension beam and the entire separating warp is brought from another normal tension beam.

The following points are to be understood from both the cross sections: -

The first layer weft (Face) - shown as “a” - lies between the stitching warp (shown as 1) and first separating warp series (shown as 3).
The second layer of weft (Middle) - shown as “b”- lies between the first and second separating warp series (shown as 3 and 4).

Application of 3D Weaving Fabric
A new method has been developed for the manufacture of bifurcated prosthesis used in medical applications and they are used to replace the defective blood vessels in patients so as to improve blood circulation.

The 3D fabrics have recently entered the medical field. Their specific area of application is in the weaving of vascular prosthesis. Vascular prosthesis are surgically implantable materials. They are used to replace the defective blood vessels in patients so as to improve blood circulation. Conventional types of prosthesis were made from air corps parachute cloth, vignon sailcloth, and other types of clothing materials.

Materials such as nylon, Teflon, orlon, stainless steel, glass, and Dacron polyester fibre have been found to be highly suitable for the manufacture of prosthesis. These materials were found to be significantly stable with regard to resistance to degradation, strength, and were not adversely affected by other factors. Dacron polyester, which has bio-compatibility and high tensile strength, is being used over a period of time as suture thread or artificial ligaments.

Biomedical Textiles | Biomedical Textile Products | Application ofBiomedical Textiles

 Introduction of Biomedical Textile

Biomedical textiles are fibrous structures designed for use in specific biological environments, where their performance depends on biocompatibility with cells and biological tissue or fluids.It is also branch of technical textile.Biomedical textiles are textile products and constructions, for medical and biological applications. It is related to medical textile. They are used for first aid, clinical or hygienic purposes. This type of textiles are manufactured from a wide range of processes. Extruded polymers can be further processed or used as filaments or tapes in dental floss and toothbrushes. Braided textiles are used for sutures and to replace damaged tendons and ligaments. Woven and knitted materials are used extensively in bandages, vascular grafts and hernia meshes. A specialised area of medical textiles is the extrusion of hollow fibre membranes used in extracorporeal devices. Non-wovens are primarily made from synthetic fibres and uses include wound dressings, hygiene products and protective clothing.

The design of a biomedical textile is driven by its end function. The main factors include:

Biodegradable Textiles : 

The textile needs to fulfil the purpose for which it was designed, for example swabs require an absorbent textile, sutures may require a biodegradable textile, while hospital bedding should be comfortable and durable.

Biocompatibility: 

This refers to the reaction of the textile with blood and tissue in the body. An implantable device has more potential for reaction than an external device and is, therefore, subject to tighter regulations. For example an artificial ligament is permanent and is able to react with blood cells and the surrounding tissue, compared to an external bandage that is temporary and only contacts the outer skin tissue.

Cost: 

This will depend on the raw materials, manufacturing process and product end-use; surgeons’ gowns and swabs should have a low production cost while vascular grafts and artificial skin will have a relatively high production cost.

Product approval: 

Each country has its own regulations and standards for medical textiles. However the European Union has introduced Community Legislation to govern medical devices. The three directives are: Active Implantable Medical Devices, Medical Devices Directive and In-Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices.

Biomedical Textile Products
Biomedical textiles are textile products and constructions, for medical and biological applications. They are used for first aid, clinical or hygienic purposes. Examples of their application are: 

Protective and healthcare textiles
Surgeons’ wear, Operating drapes and Staff uniforms, etc. 

External devices
Wound dressings, bandages, pressure garments, prosthetic socks, etc. 

Implantable materials
Sutures, vascular grafts, artificial ligaments, etc. 

Hygiene products
Incontinence pads, nappies, tampons, sanitary towels, etc. 

Extracorporeal devices
Artificial liver, artificial kidney, artificial lung, etc.

Application of Biomedical Textiles
Since the 1960s, biomedical textiles have been used in cardiovascular medical devices, such as vascular grafts and heart valve sewing cuffs. However, the current wave of innovation is looking far beyond traditional materials and textile structures to enhance capabilities and performance in the repair of damaged or diseased cardiovascular tissue. In fact, the advent of new fabrics and geometries with greater variability of properties and performance characteristics, including the combination of resorbable and nonresorbable polymers, has enabled design developments previously unimagined.

Some uses are given below:
Protective and healthcare textiles: surgeons’ wear, operating drapes and staff uniforms, etc.
External devices: wound dressings, bandages, pressure garments, prosthetic socks, etc.
Implantable materials: sutures, vascular grafts, artificial ligaments, etc.
Hygiene products: incontinence pads, nappies, tampons, sanitary towels, etc.
Extracorporeal devices: artificial liver, artificial kidney, artificial lung, etc.

Introduction of Medical Textiles | Application of Medical Textiles |Requirements of Textile Material for Medical Applications

Introduction of Medical Textile

Medical textiles also known as Healthcare Textiles. Medical Textiles is one of the most rapidly expanding sectors in the technical textile market.It is one of the major growth areas within technical textiles and the use of textile materials for medical and healthcare products ranges from simple gauze or bandage materials to scaffolds for tissue culturing and a large variety of prostheses for permanent body implants. Textile products are omnipresent in the field of human hygiene and medical practice. Their use is based on a number of typical basic textile properties like softness and lightness, flexibility, absorption, filtering etc.

Advanced medical textiles are significantly developing area because of their major expansion in such fields like wound healing and controlled release, bandaging and pressure garments, implantable devices as well as medical devices, and development of new intelligent textile products. Present day society is undergoing changes like large population size, need of increasing his life span of every individual, various situations and hazards of human activity and civilization including transport accidents, chemical materials, fire, cold, diseases, and sports. Such factors increase the demand of medical textiles. So there are several researching works are going on all over the world in medical textile materials and polymers.

Nano-technique has acquired tremendous impulse in the last decade. Nano-fibre based products as well as nano-coated materials are present innovations in the field of medical. So in our technical poster we have gone through latest medical textiles, nano-based products due to following features and wide range of application.

Nanofibres are very attracted due to their unique properties, high surface area to volume ratio, film thinness, nano scale fibre diameter porosity of structure, lighter weight. Nanofibres are porous and the distribution of pore size could be of wide range, so they can be considered as engineered scaffolds with broad application in the field of tissue engineering. Some other applications like wound dressings, bone regeneration and nanofibres to be the carrier of various drugs to the specific sites, etc.

The consumption of Medical Textiles worldwide was 1.5 million tons in 2000 and is growing at an annual rate of 4.6%. The Indian market size of medical textiles was estimated to be INR 14.8 billion in 2003-04 and is expected to grow to INR 23.3 billion by 2007-08. Market is expected to grow by 8% p.a.

The use of textile materials for medical and healthcare products can be classified into following main areas

• Barrier material (for infection control) 
• Bandaging & pressure garment 
• Wound care material  
• Hygiene material 
• Implantable material (sutures, art. Joints etc) 
• Extra Corporal devices (like art. Kidney etc)

Requirements of textile material for medical applications

• Biocompatible
• Good resistance to alkalis, acids and micro-organisms
• Good dimensional stability
• Elasticity Free from contamination or impurities
• Absorption / Repellency
• Air permeability

Medical Textile Products

Hollow polyester fiber, hollow viscose
Application: Artificial kidney
Function: Remove waste products from patient s blood

Hollow viscose
Application: Artificial liver
Function: Separate and dispose of patients’ plasma and supply fresh plasma 

Hollow polypropylene fiber, hollow silicone membrane
Application: Mechanical lung
Function: Remove carbon dioxide from patients’ blood and supply fresh oxygen 

Uses of Medical Textiles
Medical Textiles are the products and constructions used for medical and biological applications and are used primarily for first aid, clinical and -hygienic purposes. It consists of all those textile materials used in health and hygienic applications in both consumer and medical markets.As such it comprises a group of products with considerable variations in terms of product performance and unite value.Because of the nature of their application many medical products are disposable items.The increased use of textiles in composite applications will provide major growth fiber consumption in terms of volume.The

Traditional applications 

 Include wound care products, diapers, braces, protheses and orthoses, wipes, breathing masks, bedding and covers, ropes and belts etc.

Innovative textile products can both add significantly to effectiveness of medical treatments as well as patient comfort At the same time, new medical textiles, may contribute to cost containment. 

Such innovative products:
Provide new treatment options (textile based implants instead of scarce donor organs; artificial tissues, joints and ligaments), Speed up recovery after medical treatment (innovative wound dressings; light, Breathable orthoses/ protheses) . Enhance quality of life of chronically ill people (functional clothing)

Surgeons wear, wound dressings, bandages, artificial ligaments, sutures, artificial liver/kidney/lungs, nappies, sanitary towels, vascular grafts/heart valves, artificial joints/bones, eye contact lenses and artificial cornea and the like are some of the examples of medical textiles.Medical textiles are textile products and constructions for medical applications. They are used for first aid, clinical or hygienic purposes and rehabilitation

Examples of their application include:

• Protective and healthcare textiles
• Dressings, bandages, pressure garments and prosthetics
• Hygiene products
• Antiseptic wound dressings.

Geotextiles | Properties of Geotextiles | Applications of Geotextiles |Uses of Geotextiles

Geotextiles is one kind of technical textile. It is defined as any permeable textile material that is used with foundation, soil, rock, earth, etc to increase stability and decrease wind and water erosion. A geotextile may be made of synthetic or natural fibers. In contrast, a geomembrane is a continuous membrane-type liner or barrier Geomembranes must have sufficiently low permeability to control migration of fluid in a constructed project, structure or system. A geotextile is designed to be permeable to allow the flow of fluids through it or in it, and a geomembrane is designed to restrict the fluid flow.

Geotextile use will sometimes mask slope failures until erosion is too far advanced to effectively and cheaply remediate the slope. When advanced erosion is detected it means costly restoration. In contrast when a hydroseeded area has crust failure, whether from weather, human or animal activity, the damage is visible early and can be cheaply repaired.

Erosion control covers a variety of conditions from high velocity stream flow to heavy wave action, to less severe conditions.; All conditions should be considered before selecting a method of control.

Natural fibre geotextiles degrade to form an organic mulch and help in quick establishment of vegetation. Different fibres will degrade at different rates eg coir geotextiles degrade in 2-3 years while jute degrades in 1-2 years. Coir is therefore useful in situations where vegetation will take longer to establish, and jute is useful in low rainfall areas because it absorbs more moisture.

In many arid and semi-arid areas the action of the wind causes considerable erosion. Geotextiles made from natural fibre such as coir, or jute can be used for wind erosion control, dust control, sand dune formation and stabilization. Jute is particularly useful for dust control because of the hairiness of the fibres.

The properties of polymer material are affected by its average molecular weight (MW ) and its statistical distribution. Increasing the average MW results in increasing:

• Tensile strength
• Elongation
• Impact strength
• Stress crack resistance
• Heat resistance

Narrowing the molecular weight distribution results in:

• Increased impact strength
• Decreased stress crack resistance
• Decreased processability

Increasing crystallinity results in:

• Increasing stiffness or hardness
• Increasing heat resistance
• Increasing tensile strength
• Increasing modulus
• Increasing chemical resistance
• Decreasing diffusive permeability
• Decreasing elongation or strain at failure
• Decreasing flexibility
• Decreasing impact strengthDecreasing stress crack resistance

Applications of Geotextiles | Uses of Geotextiles

There are at least 80 specific applications area for geotextiles that have been developed.However, the fabric always performs at least one of five discrete functions:

Separation
Geotextiles function to prevent mutual mixing between 2 layers of soil having different particle sizes or different properties.

Drainage
The function of drainage is to gather water, which is not required functionally by the structure, such as rainwater or surplus water in the soil, and discharge it.

Filtration
Filtration involves the establishment of a stable interface between the drain and the surrounding soil. In all soils water flow will induce the movement of fine particles. Initially a portion of this fraction will be halted at the filter interface; some will be halted within the filter itself while the rest will pass into the drain. The geotextile provides an ideal interface for the creation of a reverse filter in the soil adjacent to the geotextile. The complex needle-punched structure of the geotextile provides for the retention of fine particles without reducing the permeability requirement of the drain.

Reinforcement
Due to their high soil fabric friction coefficient and high tensile strength, heavy grades of geotextiles are used to reinforce earth structures allowing the use of local fill material.

Protection
Erosion of earth embankments by wave action, currents and repeated drawdown is a constant problem requiring the use of non-erodable protection in the form of rock beaching or mattress structures. Beneath these is placed a layer of geotextile to prevent leaching of fine material. The geotextile is easily placed, even under water.

Agro Textiles | General Property Requirement of Agrotextiles | FibersUsed for Agro-Textiles | Application of Agro Textiles

Agro Textile:
Agro textiles are now days extensively being used in horticulture, farming and other agricultural activities. Agriculture and textiles are the largest industries in the world providing basic needs such as food and clothing.The usage of agro textiles will be benefited in terms of products with enhanced quality, higher yields fewer damages and bearable losses. It also permits as to use lower quantities of weed killers and pesticides.

Soil cover fabric

Agriculture has been amongst the most primal occupations of the humankind and is still a major industry, globally. In this era of modernization and high technological advancements, it has spread its horizons and started using man-made, non-conventional textiles, called “technical textiles”.

Fibers Used for Agro Textiles:
There is use of synthetics as well as natural fibers in agro textiles. Fibers used in agro textiles are as follows:
• Nylon
• Polyester
• Polyethylene
• Polyolefin
• Polypropylene
• Jute
• Wool

Among all these fibers the Polyolefin is extensively used where as among natural jute and wool is used it not only serve the purpose but also after some year it degrades and act as the natural fertilizer.

General Property Requirement of Agrotextiles:
The properties required for agro textiles are:
• Weather resistance- It must work effectively in cold as well as hot climatic conditions
• Resistance to microorganisms-It must resistant to microorganism to protect the living being
• Stable construction- The construction must be such that it must be stable for any application
• Lightweight- The weight of the fabric should be such that it will bare by the plant.

Some of the purposes for which these textiles are being increasingly used are as follows:

1. Preventing erosion and paving way for afforestation
2. In greenhouse cover and fishing nets
3. For Layer separation in fields
4. In Nets for plants, rootless plants & protecting grassy areas
5. As sun screens (since they have adjustable screening)and wind shields
6. As packing material and in bags for storing grass (that has been mowed)
7. Controlling stretch in knitted nets
8. Shade for basins
9. Anti-birds nets
10. Fabrics for sifting and separation, for the phases of enlargement of the larvae
11. Materials for ground and plant water management at the time of scarcity and abundance of water.

Some Important Uses of Agrotextiles are given below in Details: 

Hail protection: 

Hail protection fabrics helps shield vines from the fruit damage and defoliation associated with hail yet still lets through plenty of sunlight.

Wind protection Fabrics: 

Trees that are protected from wind are generally healthier, reach full growth more rapidly, and have higher yield. Wind Break Fabrics protect crops from wind and, in some cases, orchard temperatures can be increased by reducing wind speed.

Soil Covers or landscape Covers or Weed protection fabrics:
The relevant parameters for an agro textile, used as soil cover, will be determined based on laboratory tests and field experiments.

Shade Fabrics:

1. Shade fabric absorbing 90% of sunlight.
2. It is made from 100% polypropylene monofilament strands.
3. It is UV stabilized to hold up under the most extreme solar conditions.
4. It can be used for a variety of applications: wind and privacy screen, shading for sports
   and recreation.
5. Knitted Sunshade cloth is made from 100% UV stabilized polyethylene.
6. Its unique lock stitch construction allows customers the ability to cut the fabric with scissors without further unraveling.

Insect Repellent Fabrics:
Various pests like Whitefly, scale insects attack some ornamental plants and vegetables frequently. The fabrics of such kind are stretched across the open-air plantations so that the pests can no longer get to the plants and also the climate will not be disturbed in any way.

Temperature Controlled Fabrics: 

1. Temperature Control fabric is a nonwoven, spun bonded polyester fabric designed to protect crops from cold, frost, insects and a variety of adverse environmental factors.
2. Temperature Control fabric helps captures heat on sunny days and retains heat radiating from the ground at night. 
3. This aids in protecting sensitive ornamentals, nursery stock and foliage 24 hours a day.