Large-deflexion Bending of Woven Fabric for Automated Material-handling

Abstract

The development of highly flexible devices for automated handling of textile materials requires a knowledge-based computer system to manipulate successfully a diverse range of fabrics with varying engineering properties. The purpose of the research reported in this paper is to develop and validate a computer model for predicting fabric-deformation behaviour during automated handling, given experimentally measured fabric properties. A computer program is developed, on the basis of Konopasek's theoretical formulation for solving large-deflexion fabric-bending problems, to simulate the laying of fabric on a table by means of a robot manipulator. Experimental data are collected for actual bending shapes of selected apparel fabrics and compared with theoretical data generated by the numerical solution of the mathematical model. The results demonstrate the ability of the model to predict large deformations of typical apparel fabrics with a part size of up to 10 cm in length. Only the measured properties, bending rigidity and weight per unit length, are required to represent the fabric in the model.