Variable Diameter Medical Tube Textiles via Intermediary Control Weave
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current weaving techniques struggle to maintain tight dimensional tolerances for medical tube textiles with variable diameters, leading to high scrap rates due to factors like weft shuttle tension, warp yarn tension, and warp yarn contact with take-up rollers, which are mitigated in parts with non-variable geometry.
Innovation Solution
A diameter control weave is implemented by weaving a second weft yarn with segments of the warp yarns outside the medical tube textiles, providing dimensional stability akin to non-variable geometry during the weaving process, which can be later removed to achieve variable geometry with precise tolerances.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If variable diameter weaving is performed without diameter control, then geometric flexibility is improved, but manufacturing precision deteriorates due to tension variations and roller contact
Solution Approach 1:
A diameter control weave acts as an intermediary element between the variable diameter medical tube textile sections. This control weave stabilizes the warp yarns during transitions between different diameters, preventing excessive tension variations and maintaining dimensional tolerance. The control weave is temporarily incorporated during weaving and later removed, serving its mediating function only when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The diameter control weave is incorporated preliminarily during the weaving process to prevent dimensional tolerance issues before they occur. By stabilizing the warp yarns in advance during diameter transitions, the control weave prevents tension-related defects and roller contact issues that would otherwise compromise manufacturing precision.
2Manufacturing precision
If diameter control weave is added, then manufacturing precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The diameter control weave is temporarily incorporated during the weaving process to provide dimensional stability, then deliberately discarded in a subsequent removal step. This allows the control weave to serve its precision-enhancing function during manufacturing without permanently increasing the complexity of the final medical tube textile product.
3Adaptability or versatility
If variable diameter sections are woven, then adaptability is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to thread breakage and opening faults
Solution Approach 1:
The diameter control weave serves as a protective intermediary that stabilizes warp yarns during diameter transitions, preventing the excessive tension and loosening that lead to thread breakage and opening faults. This mediator ensures reliable, defect-free weaving through variable geometry sections.
Solution Approach 2:
The diameter control weave provides beforehand cushioning by stabilizing the warp yarn structure prior to and during diameter transitions. This preventive stabilization cushions against tension spikes and yarn loosening that would otherwise cause thread breakage and opening faults, ensuring reliability throughout the variable diameter sections.
Data Source
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AI summary
A textile greige (20) includes a plurality of woven medical tube textiles (30) in a series that share a set of warp yarns (22) and a first weft yarn (23). The medical tube textiles have different diameter segments such that less than all of the warp yarns are included in a small diameter segment of the medical tube textile. A diameter control weave (40) of a second weft yarn (24) is woven with segments (41) of the warp yarns (22) that are outside of the woven medical tube textiles. Later processing includes cutting the diameter control weave from the medical tube textile.