Research on a high-efficiency composite heald frame with carbon fiber reinforcement

To satisfy the high-speed production demand of modern looms, a sandwich-structured delamination composite heald frame was fabricated using carbon fiber, epoxy resin, honeycomb core, wood core plates and damping sealing strips. With the interleaved laying scheme of unidirectional carbon fiber prepreg and circular winding technology adopted, a finite element model of the composite inner beam was constructed on the WorkBench/ACP platform. Modal analysis revealed that symmetric layup delivers higher low-order natural frequencies (1st–5th orders) and better dynamic performance than asymmetric layup. On this basis, a multivariate dynamic optimization model with variables of layup angle α, θ and layup thickness t was established, and an APDL-based parametric finite element model was built for asymmetric carbon fiber layup. The sub-problem algorithm was applied to optimize the carbon fiber layup parameters, raising the 1st–6th order natural frequencies of the composite beam by 16.6–335 Hz and validating the reliability of the proposed optimization model. Vibration, noise and cam wear tests further verified that the carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite heald frame outperforms the conventional YG4 steel heald frame in vibration and noise reduction, as well as loom energy conservation. This research provides a theoretical and technical reference for the structural design and manufacturing of novel composite heald frames.