Woven Fabric with Sinusoidal Warp Yarns for Knitted-Like Flexibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing woven fabrics, such as denim, lack the flexibility and drapability of knitted fabrics while being expensive to manufacture in indigo colors, and they do not drape well over the body.
Innovation Solution
A warp-faced woven fabric is designed with two sets of warp yarns: frontside warp yarns for visibility and backside warp yarns for skin contact, which are woven to create a sinusoidal pattern, allowing the fabric to mimic the feel of a knitted fabric while maintaining a denim-like appearance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If woven fabric is used to maintain stability and denim appearance, then manufacturing cost is reduced and production is simplified, but flexibility and drapability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The fabric is segmented into two distinct yarn systems: warp yarns that maintain stability and denim appearance, and weft yarns that provide flexibility and knitted-like feel. This segmentation allows each yarn type to perform its specific function independently, resolving the contradiction between woven stability and knitted flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The fabric uses a composite structure combining woven elements (warp yarns for stability) and knitted elements (weft yarns for flexibility). The weft yarns form loops that mimic knitted fabric behavior while the warp yarns maintain the woven fabric's dimensional stability, creating a hybrid material that satisfies both requirements.
2Ease of operation
If knitted fabric is used to achieve flexibility and drapability, then ease of draping is improved, but manufacturing complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using traditional knitting methods to achieve flexibility, the invention inverts the approach by incorporating loop-forming weft yarns into a woven fabric structure. This allows the fabric to be manufactured on standard woven looms while still achieving knitted-like flexibility through the loop structure of the weft yarns.
Solution Approach 2:
The weft yarns are designed to copy the loop structure of knitted fabrics, creating a visual and tactile resemblance to knitted material. This copying approach allows the fabric to mimic knitted properties without requiring actual knitting processes, thereby simplifying manufacturing.
3Ease of operation
If high weft density is used to create knitted-like feel, then flexibility is improved, but number of weft insertions increases and manufacturing cost rises
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the structural parameters of the weft yarns by forming loops that span multiple warp yarns. This structural parameter change allows the fabric to achieve knitted-like flexibility with fewer weft insertions, as each looped weft yarn creates multiple contact points with warp yarns, effectively distributing the flexibility across the fabric structure.
Data Source
AI summary
Woven fabric, particularly a warp faced fabric, such as a denim fabric, may include a front and a back, a plurality of picks extending in weft direction and a plurality of warp yarns extending in warp direction and bypassing picks at their frontside to define over portions and bypassing picks at their backside to define under portions. The plurality of warp yarns may include frontside warp yarns and backside warp yarns, and the under portions of the backside warp yarns bypass more picks than the under portions of the frontside warp yarns.