ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,246,497, issued on March 11, was assigned to AIRBUS OPERATIONS Ltd. (Bristol, Great Britain) and AIRBUS OPERATIONS GmbH (Hamburg, Germany).
"Edge stability" was invented by Hauke Seegel (Hamburg, Germany) and Dominic Bloom (Bristol, Great Britain).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method and apparatus for cutting a Non-Crimp Fabric for improving edge stability and reducing stitch retraction is disclosed. The part of the NCF to be cut is treated with a binder and heated to activate the binder and therefore bind the tows and stitches together. By treating only the cutting path the drapability of the wider fabric is maintained. This may be a...