Herzog presents braiding and winding technology for technical applications

Since 1861 Herzog has active in braiding and winding technology. In a much diversified sector, Herzog has a scope of 500 models of braiding and winding machines. Several new machines presented at ITMA Barcelona, the highlights include new braiding machine for medical applications and a horizontal triaxial radial braiding machine for the production of structural airplane parts from carbon reinforced plastics.

The completely new rope braiding machine upto a new horizontal braiding machine, especially for medical applications was displayed. In addition, a newly developed deviation braider and very interesting concept of overbraiding in the fibre-reinforced composite section was also presented at ITMA 2011. Last but not least winding is an important process to prepare for good quality braids. Herzog also presents its redesigned fully automatic winder series.

With regard to sustainability, lightweight constructions are more and more important and therefore, Composites are a growing market. In this context, designing fibre reinforced composites involves the use of fabrics, which then have to be cut and manually draped. Overbraiding from Herzog provides a solution for various profiles to achieve results near to the net shape. The fibres can be placed with the required angle. Expensive materials can be used more efficiently in order to avoid any waste of material.

Herzog presents at ITMA a horizontal triaxial radial braiding machine. It works with carbon and glass fibres. This machine type is presented for the first time at a show. It will be used to produce structural airplane parts from carbon reinforced plastics after ITMA. The machine has 176 carriers for the placement of yarn and can work with an angle of plus or minus 45 degree yarns and 88 carriers for zero degree yarns.

The rope braiding machine SE1/16-210 is equipped with a newly designed carrier for bobbins. This carrier combines a patented innovative external expanding brake system with a combination of strong metal and lightweight but ultra strong plastic material. This set-up allows a very soft as well as precise release of the yarns during the braiding process at higher speed. The high speed and large bobbin capacity allows for reduced production cost. The machine is especially designed for cost-effective production of smaller and medium range rope diameters.

Herzog also developed the Variation braider VF, which provides the maximum flexibility to produce braids with carrier numbers between 4 and 32. The machine is already patented and those companies and institutions that require flexibility regarding the carrier numbers can use Variation braider VF in a very efficient way. Furthermore, this machine enables the production of special profiles. The machine is presented for the first time at ITMA is equipped with four PLC-controlled switch crossings. By this - split braids can be produced such as Y-branches, triple openings, loops, etc. Therefore, this development will open completely new applications in ropes, medical fields and composites.

The medical textiles particularly require the use of finer and finest braids for various applications, and the braids must be extremely strong. The newly developed machine series KB 56 is presented for the first time has shown that fibres down to only 4 Denier can be processed with it. It is really unbelievable as ladies panty hose which is usually around 40 Deniers. Furthermore, this machine does not need any lubricants. Therefore, it can be used in production areas with highly demanding clean room categories. It is rather likely that this machine opens up completely new medical applications for low yarn counts.