Volume 8,
Issue 6, 1999
Deep
Drawing of Plain Weft-Knitted Fabric Composites: Part 1.: Cup Height
Analysis
T.C.Lim, S.Ramakrishna and H.M.Shang
Department of Mechanical and Production Engineering, The
National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260.
(Received 8/99;accepted 11/99)
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.