As a highlight, the wide-ranging potential offered by structure and process simulations of textile high performance materials and textile manufacturing processes will be presented. At ITM, special expertise in terms of materials and processes was achieved by means of multi-scale modelling and simulations. In this regard, finite element models were developed and validated on micro, meso and macro scales. Examples representing current research projects performed at ITM will reveal various applications of state-of-the-art simulation methods for textile machinery.

Moreover, innovative construction highlights in the area of flat knitting technology developed by ITM researchers will be showcased. When using fibre-reinforced composites (FRP) with complex free-form surfaces, considerable challenges lie in the creation of load-adapted designs and cost- and time-efficient manufacturing processes. For these purposes, innovative, highly drapeable, and requirement-adapted textile semi-finished products are developed at ITM. Constructive new and further developments for textile machinery were achieved in close collaboration with well-known textile machine manufacturers, e.g. Stoll, Steiger, and Shima Seiki.

Within an ITM research project, an innovative method for the continuous and highly efficient manufacturing of complex, shell-shaped, and hollow profiled 3D preforms made of high performance fibres was successfully developed and implemented. Because structural fixation is an integral part of this process, the generated preforms are suitable for use in FRP components. The newly developed forming process does not require laborious moving or actively driven elements. Hence, the forming of complex geometries can be realized even in confined spaces. For the first time, the continuous manufacturing of closed, hollow, and profiled 3D preforms in high and reproducible quality was achieved. Several example preforms will be showcased.

A development focus that was successfully established at ITM and will therefore be exhibited at JEC is the manufacturing of 3D structures in the form of near-net-shaped preforms. Such structures include planar and bent components with integrated ribs to enhance the bending stiffness of highly loaded components, which are manufactured at ITM using a simulation-supported process. It is a particularly demanding challenge to develop urgently needed suitable nodal elements made of glass and carbon filament yarns. At ITM, these elements are developed using highly complex and simulation-supported binding pattern constructions and state-of-the-art, computer-controlled textile machinery. More than once, ITM has been awarded international honours for development efforts in this field of research.