Deep drawing of plain weft-knitted fabric composites: Part 1. Cup height analysis

Abstract

Previous investigations on forming of plain weft-knitted fabric composite sheets show the ease of stretching due to fabric loop straightening. Pure dependence on stretching alone, however, sets the limit to which the shell height can be further increased. Recent deep drawn knitted fabric composites give greater cup height in comparison to stretch formed cup. In this paper a method of predicting the achievable cup height is proposed with due consideration to the fabric structure and tool dimensions. Comparison between the theoretical and experimental cup height shows good agreement.