NONWOVENS AS 3-DIMENSIONAL TEXTILES FOR COMPOSITES

Three-dimensional. textiles are those materials which have a system or systems in all the three axes of plane. These offer particular properties, such as interlaminar shearing force, and mechanical and thermal stability along all three axes of space, which are not achievable with other reinforcements. The demand for these types of fabrics is expected to increase, especially in the areas of high performance composites in automobile industry, housing, construction and reinforcement materials. Reduction in manufacturing and raw materials costs has to be brought about in order to make the advanced composites competitive in the current market and acceptable in the future new markets. Nonwovens, which are a major constituent of this class of textiles are becoming important because of their ease of manufacture and low production cost. This is a comprehensive review of different methods of manufacturing 3-D textiles with an emphasis on nonwovens.