Geometric Analysis of Rosette® Exit Cones

An exploratory analysis of the geometry of Rosette® (registered trademark of Hitco) exit cones is carried out in the present work. The basic analysis begins with the premise that each horizontal cross section of the warped sheet (layer) follows a certain spiral trajectory governed by a set of equations which guarantee the continuity and axisymmetry requirements of the cone. While such a three-dimensional warped layer is not able to be developed from a flat basic sheet (e.g., a preimpregnated cloth material), a procedure based upon the preceding basic analysis is derived to construct the associated approximate flat sheet pattern. The errors associated with this procedure are calculated and found to be small for practical configurations, which indicates that the scheme is quite applicable in the actual fabrication of the rosette cone.