Possibilities for the production and method in the development of lace braiding on 3D braiding machines with continuous rotating horn gears and programmable switches

This work presents newly discovered possibilities for producing lace-type patterns on typical 3D braiding machines with continuously rotating horn gears. Using specially developed 3D software for the simulation of the braiding process, numerical simulation of multistate braiding processes to obtain braiding programs as a set of switch states, led to the production of a lace-type interlacement. Basic knowledge about building braided pillow laces was first analyzed with the software and after that verified and produced on a 3D maypole braiding machine with a 4 × 4 set of horn gears and computer-controllable switches. The advantage of lace-type structures compared to classical flat-, round-, or square-braided patterns is the possibility to control the motion area of the carrier and set one particular thread to interlace only with a selected set of threads. This effect and this pattern advancement could be used for the development and production of samples with customized mechanical properties, mixing the effects of classical braids with lace-type braids.