Extra thin sidelight-emitting polymer optical fiber narrow fabrics for UV structural adhesive joints: design, preparation and performance experiments

Ultraviolet (UV) bonding technology is widely used across industries. As the curing reaction is initiated via an external light source, the use of fast-curing structural UV acrylates has so far been limited to joint designs with at least one transparent joining part. By introducing a side-emitting polymer optical fiber textile into the adhesive layer, which acts as an embedded light source, the technology can be made accessible for applications with nontransparent substrates such as metals. This paper describes the development of extra thin polymer optical fiber narrow fabrics designed to enable curing of structural adhesive joints. Polymer optical fibers (warp) were combined with different low-titer polyester weft yarns in two fabric design types with different primary out-coupling mechanisms: undulation and surface modification of the polymer optical fibers. The effect of yarn properties, thread densities and weave on fabric quality, geometry and lateral light intensity of each type were investigated. Results showed that narrow fabric production within the tight geometric limits required is feasible. Fabrics manufactured with nontextured yarns at low titers and low weft densities exhibited the highest lateral light intensities for the surface modification type fabric. To compensate for intensity loss over fabric length, investigating light coupling from both sides is recommended for this fabric type. For the undulation type fabric, the lateral light intensity characteristics indicated that the high tenacity yarns are promising candidates for the fabrication of low sidelight attenuation fabrics through modulation of the weft density.