Braided composites offer numerous advantages ascomponents of large civil structures. Often viewed as an expensive,complex manufacturing method reserved for aerospacecomponents, braiding is already entering the civil structures marketin several areas including light poles and automobile components.As fiber composites continue to achieve wider acceptance in thismarket, the advantages of braiding: automated processing, optimaluse of more expensive fibers in hybrid structures, and minimumscrap rates for these fibers, will be exploited. Given the potentialfor this progression, it is important to evaluate the options forbraided fabrication and consider the advantages offered by theinnovative machinery now available.
NSTL
