Expandable Guide Tooling for Circular Needling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing circular needling tables for making helical fiber sheet textile structures face difficulties in removing the needled structure without applying mechanical stress, due to the presence of guiding walls that can damage the fiber structure.
Innovation Solution
The guide tooling consists of an inner and outer guide rail system with radial reinforcement, where the outer guide rail expands and the inner guide rail contracts to facilitate the extraction of the needled structure without mechanical stress, using actuators to adjust the guide rail positions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If fixed guide walls are used to guide the fiber sheet during rotation, then lateral guidance is provided during needling, but the needled structure cannot be removed without exerting mechanical stresses that may damage it
Solution Approach 1:
The guide rail system transitions from a static configuration to a dynamic one where the outer guide rail can expand and the inner guide rail can contract. This dynamic adjustment allows the guide rails to provide stable lateral guidance during needling, then expand/contract to facilitate easy structure removal without mechanical stress damage
Solution Approach 2:
The outer guide rail is divided into two angular sectors that can be moved apart by an outer actuator, and the inner guide rail is divided into two angular sectors that can be moved together by an inner actuator. This segmentation enables the guide rails to change their configuration from a closed guiding structure to an open extraction-friendly structure
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to guide tooling (22) for a circular needling table for needling a textile structure made from a helical fiber sheet, the tooling comprising an inner guide rail (24) of circularly arcuate shape, and an outer guide rail (26) of circularly arcuate shape arranged coaxially around the inner guide rail and connected thereto by radial reinforcement (28), the outer and inner guide rails defining between them a passage for guiding the helical fiber sheet under a needling head, the outer guide rail being made up of two outer guide rail angular sectors (26a, 26b) that are connected to each other by an outer actuator (28), the outer actuator being suitable for moving the adjacent free ends (26a-1, 26b-1) of the outer guide rail angular sectors apart from each other so as to expand the outer guide rail.