A rule-based robotic control approach to melt-blowing for shaped fabric structures

The production of protective garments is a complex process which generally involves nonwoven and tailored fabric structures. This paper presents an approach that integrates robotics with meltblown technology in addressing some of the problems associated with this garment production. In particular, a rule base 3D control is developed and an evaluation of the quality control of the 3D fabric structures formed using this system is performed using a basis-weight function analysis to measure uniformity. Melt-blowing of a polypropylene mixture was conducted by directly forming 3D fabrics on a mannequin mold. The results obtained show that when a constant-velocity control strategy is used during the fiber spraying phase, the basis-weight uniformity had a 16% coefficient of variation (CV). However, when a rule-based control strategy is applied using a displacement transducer for feedback and a set of fiber application rules for control, the CV is reduced to 11%. Thus the proposed system achieves the goal of improving uniformity of shaped fabric structures