École Nationale Supérieure Arts & Industries Textiles (France)
Institution and Laboratory
ENSAIT (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Industries Textiles) is a French high education school specialised in Fibre Science and Textile Technology. ENSAIT is a public organisation and is one of the most important academic teaching institutions at master level in Europe, in textile. ENSAIT has its own research laboratory, GEMTEX. The laboratory has more than 30 permanent researchers (full professors, associate professors, research engineers and technicians, admin support) and 40 PhD students and Post-doc positions. The research laboratory is divided into three research groups: Human Centred Design (denoted HCD), Multifunctional Textiles and Processes (denoted MTP), and Mechanics Textile Composites (denoted MTC). and GEMTEX is involved in many national and international research projects concerning the design and the study of advanced materials, including multifunctional technical textiles (e.g transportation, civil engineering, agriculture, filtration), composite structures (e.g aeronautics, automotive, medical), advanced fibre structures (e.g personal care and protection), smart textiles (e.g nanocomposites, conductive soft materials, sensors & actuators), biopolymers and renewable.
Main tasks in SSUCHY
Within SSUCHY, ENSAIT and specifically MTC’s group under the supervision of Pr. Damien Soulat, is leading WP5 “Manufacturing of preforms based on natural fibres”. It will involve different textile processes (weaving, braiding or knitting), as reinforcement of composite materials. Its main task are the definition of the preform architecture, relatively to specifications, the mechanical characterization of dry preform (tensile behaviour, in-plane shear behaviour, bending behaviour, deformability by preforming stage). This WP is linked to the WP4 for raw material (aligned fibre/yarn scale) and to the WP6 for the composite manufacturing in collaboration with ENIT, UFC and KUL, partners.
Significant infrastructure and equipment
GEMTEX Laboratory is specialized on textile manufacturing. In Mechanics Textile Composite Group involved by SSUCHY project, weaving, braiding looms or preform reinforcement technology (by tufting, 3D-Interlock weaving) could be used in function of application. Mechanical characterization at several scales (yarns, preform) will be conducted on specific test machine dedicated to textile preforms, in tensile, in-plane shear or bending. Specific device able to analyse the deformability of textile preform during the preforming stage could be used for the project.
PhD and Post-docs involved in SSUCHY:
Anne-Clémence CORBIN, PhD student (anne-clemence.corbi@ensait.fr)
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