Tibgrid®: flexible heating fabrics and heating textiles for multilayers or composite parts and tooling
TIBGRID description :
Tibgrid heating fabrics integrate a heating yarn attached to a textile support which is light and with a very open structure .
The Tibgrid heating fabric is characterized by:
- The heating circuit width.
- The pitch of the circuit (i.e. gap between each sinusoid of the heating yarn): from 4mm to 20mm.
- Hetring wire types - Please also note the large choice of compatibles functionnal wires developped specifically by TIBTECH - non insulated "N" or insulated "I" of different resitivity.
- The presence of selvedges (additional support fabric aside the heating circuit) to ease the Tibgrid fabric integration.
See picture hereunder! Furthermore, a power calculator is also available
What is the interest fo using TIBGRID rather than only heating wires?:
Within TIBGRID structures , the regularity of functional wires positionning allows:
- A gain of time through easy laying on complex surfaces:
- Avoid heating wires overlapping that may cause hot spots:
- Maintain a good structural cohesion , thanks to very smooth injection or flow of resins, thermoplastics, elastomeric , foam or other silicones:
- To avoid deformation strain on fuctionnal wires , and therefore ot increase product lifetime under repeated thermal cycles :
- Excellent flexibility in textiles or multilayers structures, as well as excellent moisture exchanges
PTFE within composites… is it really incompatible?:
In fact the non adherent functionnal wire creates a tube within the composite structure, in wich it can freely move through thermal dilatation cycles. Therefore it doesn't damage either le fuctionnal wire, nor the matrix. This allows a much better lifetime of the composite structure:
Properties:
- The pitch, or space between heating wires, can be adapted to your heating requirements by surface unit.
- Can easily be inserted between two composite or textile layers thanks to its open structure. The fabric is therefore completely embedded into the material.
- A version of the Tibgrid fabrics also exists with a double heating circuits in order to :
- Have a redundant heating grid, for instance for aerospace applications.
- Have a higher areal power without increasing the thickness.
- Ease the connection : the input and output of the circuit are at the same place.
Applications:
Composite functionalization : de-icing or heating.
In many fields or application it is necessary to De-ice composite parts or multilayers structures : some examples:
- Antenna deicing, Wind turbine blades or propellers, ou cold rooms deicing devices
- Defrosting of rolling plates for land or rail transport. or structural parts where flexibility or light weight is required.
- Wastewater deicing, unclogging of fatty substances within filtration media...
- Pre-heating of composite fuel tank or fuids transfer pipes.
- Pre heating of engines or battery casing in cold regions.
Electrically heatable molds: out of autoclave process for curing, infiltration (RTM) or preforming for composite manufacturing.
Main interest of this technology is to avoid the very important investment cost of large furnaces, as well as big Energy savings that can be up to 80%, or a better temperature control according to composite parts geometry.
: some examples:
- Heating or curing moulds of small to large size, and surface power ranging from 500 to 7000 watts/m²
- Technology specially adapted to large scale parts curing, as by example carbon race boats masts
The Tibgrid® fabric is sold by rolls : minimum order length is 10 meters.
Please click to download the TIBGRID calculator:the donwload time may be a bit long)
To access to the calculator , please activate the worksheet