Design and manufacture of 3D rectangular box-shaped fabrics

Multi-ply woven fabric consists of many layers and can be used to form three-dimensional shapes, which finds its application in a variety of end-uses. One of the advantages is that this type of products requires no seams or cuts. This paper presents a novel method to facilitate the design of 3D rectangular box-shaped fabrics made of multi-ply weaves. A preliminary folding-down process is a must for fabric manufacture and two folding approaches were developed accordingly. Approach A has been found to be more suitable for boxes with X ≥ 2Z. The elimination of quadruple-layer fabric region simplifies the design and weaving process. In this regard, plain weave was used sections form box body and basket weave was employed for bound-layer regions so that fabric recoiling could be avoided. The diagonal lines connecting the bound-layer and double-layer regions is required to have an angle of 45°, and hence a Jaquard loom was in use for manufacturing. As the fabric is formed by different parts, thread density vari...