Systems and methods for manufacturing knitted shoe uppers. An article of fully finished three-dimensionally weft knitted footwear is manufactured through a knitting process which can be performed by an automated V-bed flat knitting machine. During the knitting process, a plurality of knitted members are knitted into shape sequentially and connected to one another through knitted live hinges, each member being a ply, a layer, a layer portion or an appendage. The knitting machine manipulates the knitted members into their destined places as in the final product without cutting and sewing, thereby forming a seamless unitary textile construction. The process creates a seamless, full gauge, dimensionally stable footwear upper, as a unitary textile construction with an integrated anatomically appropriate heel. The entire upper, including the closure element of the upper, may be completed exclusively by the knitting machine, ready for the following shoe making process.

A stitched multi-axial reinforcement and a method of producing a stitched multi-axial reinforcement. The stitched multi-axial reinforcement may be used in all such applications that reinforcements are generally needed and especially in such applications where either Vacuum Infusion technology or Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) technology for distributing the resin in the mold is used. The stitched multi-axial reinforcement is especially applicable in the manufacture of wind turbine blades, boats, sporting equipment, storage tanks, bus, trailer, train and truck panels, etc., and generally in all such structures that are subjected to stress in more than one direction.

Fabrics formed from a multitude of continuous fibers, each of the fibers including many individual filaments, are disclosed. The fibers are held together by a stitching yarn. Properties of the stitching yarn allow a resin to more readily flow through the fabric.

A method for producing a transformable dry preform, in particular for the creation of a product made of composite materials, includes the sequence of the following steps: simultaneous weft/wale knitting of at least one stitch thread and at least one unidirectional reinforcement thread, at least one stitch thread including a material, the nature of which being different to that of a material comprised in at least one unidirectional reinforcement thread, at least one of the materials being thermoplastic and having a melting point lower than the melting point of at least one other material, referred to as reinforcement material; and creating of a three-dimensional knit that constitutes a dry preform in the shape of the product that is to be obtained. Additionally, a product made of composite materials can be produced using the dry preform created by the method.

System and method of manufacturing a unitary construction of a weft knit article with one or more warp insert in an integrated knitting process by using a weft knit machine. The unitary construction comprises one or more yarn materials which are incorporated into one or more weft and warp stitch structures. The knitting machine is equipped with a warp feeder assembly, including a weft knit warp feeder, a warp knitting guide needle block operable to hold a plurality of warp strands, a strand guide bar configured to guide the plurality of warp strands to the weft knit warp feeder, and a cam box. The cam box includes at least a weft stitch cam, a weft guard cam, a warp stitch cam, and a warp guard cam.

A woven textile defines a longitudinal direction and a horizontal direction. The woven textile includes at least one first zone, at least one second zone, at least one first binding thread, and at least one second binding thread. The first zone includes at least one first braid. The first braid is woven by a plurality of filaments and extends in a sinusoidal wave pattern. The second zone includes at least one second braid. The second braid is woven by a plurality of filaments and extends in a sinusoidal wave pattern. The first zone and the second zone are aligned along the longitudinal direction. The first binding thread extends along the horizontal direction and is woven with the first braid. The second binding thread extends along the horizontal direction and is woven with the second braid.

The present invention discloses a method for producing unidirectional hybrid-braided fabrics, including: preparing a first layer of 0° warps; preparing a second layer of 0° warps to a Nth layer of 0° warps; preparing an auxiliary layer of wefts; preparing binding yarns; laying and hybrid-braiding the materials prepared in steps 1-4 to obtain unidirectional hybrid-braided fabrics; and cutting and winding. The 0° warps and wefts of the invention are made of two or more layers of different fibers that are laid in a single direction and finally hybrid-braided. Therefore, two or more different types of materials can be laid, thereby ensuring the uniform distribution and thickness of the fibers in different areas of the hybrid-braided fabric. The grammage of different 0° warp fiber layers can be adjusted freely in a range of 30-3000 grams/m.sup.2, thereby realizing performance and cost designability of a composite material.

A hybrid reinforcing fabric includes glass fibers and carbon fibers. The hybrid reinforcing fabric can be readily infused at an acceptable infusion speed, without requiring that the carbon fiber tows used to form the hybrid reinforcement fabric be spread or pre-impregnated with resin. Thus, the fabric provides for an effective one-step (i.e., in the mold) infusion process during composite part formation.

A hybrid reinforcing fabric includes glass fibers and carbon fibers. The hybrid reinforcing fabric can be readily infused at an acceptable infusion speed, without requiring that the carbon fiber tows used resin. Thus, the fabric provides for an effective one-step (i.e., in the mold) infusion process during composite part formation.

Fabrics formed from a multitude of continuous fibers, each of the fibers including many individual filaments, are disclosed. The fibers are held together by a stitching yarn. Properties of the stitching yarn allow a resin to more readily flow through the fabric.