Design of and with thin-ply non-crimp fabric as building blocks for composites

New generation non-crimp fabric (NCF) offers an attractive thin and lightweight building block alternative in the design of composite materials and structures. Pre-assembly of multiple plies of parallel fibers, each laying in a different orientation would not require crimping of the fibers and would enable one-axis lay-up that can substantially reduce the labor, scrap, and manufacturing costs. A state-of-the-art tow-spreading technique enables...