Warp Knitting Technology And Performance Research Of Metal Mesh For Spacecraft Deployable Antenna Reflector

The flexible warp knitting metal mesh is crucial base material of the development of the deployable reflector antenna at universe,and it is very important to research about their warp knitting technology and performance.Especially with the demand of the working frequency of the satellite antenna is higher and higher,high performance of the metal mesh is becoming more and more requirement.A series of mechanical properties of the metal mesh be tested,which is necessary for the future application,lifetime and surface precision control in the space of the metal mesh.In addition,foreign study of the metal mesh has been relatively mature.However,our research in this area is still in its infancy.For these reasons,the research of the warp knitting technology,mesh structure and properties of the metal mesh fabrics be installed on satellite antenna are important from all sides.Warp knitting technology of the metal mesh are optimized,and some basic performances of knitted metal mesh are tested in the paper.First of all,the breaking strength and elongation at break of metal monofilaments are mainly tested.Generally,there are 3 steps involving metal ply yarn of doubling,warping and warp knitting during whole weaving process.From whole knitting process of the metal mesh in the paper,related assembly units of doubling,warping machine and warp knitting machine are selected and redesigned,and doubling technology,warping technology and warp knitting technology are optimized.Metal mesh must be cleaned,so ultrasonic cleaner was used to eliminate oil,hand sweat,dust and other pollution in the weaving process.And after cleaning,metal mesh would be conducted by vacuum packing for application of experiment and subsequent process.Secondly,bursting property of three kinds of warp knitting metal mesh be chose are tested refer to the relevant test methods and standards.In this work,three different kinds of notch involving single edge notch(SEN),double edge notch(DEN)and central notch(CEN)were preset in flexible warp knitting metal mesh,then,stitch the samples.And the tensile properties of all samples were tested under the same condition.Positive Poisson's ratio effect of warp knitting metal mesh gave rise to obvious waist winding and special inverted triangle loading area.Three kinds of notch samples' sensitivity were investigated through different notch length.Then failure process and tensile properties were contrasted and analyzed between intact samples,notch samples and stitched samples.The notch procession obviously deteriorated the mechanical properties of flexible warp knitting metal mesh,different forms of incision and incision length had different effect on mesh fabric and there was a same fracture process happened in the three above samples.Based on the research of the mechanical properties of metal mesh,provide guidance in weaving process and practical application of metal mesh.Finally,we summarize some conclusions of the project,point out some shortages and some proposal for further researches,which can provide some valuable references for the manufacture and practical application of the metal mesh.