Guide rings play a key part in the effective preforming of braided composites. However, there is limited literature discussing the influence of guide rings on the final braid architecture. In this research, data from a range of manufactured braided preforms are compared with results from kinematic simulations to characterise the behaviour of the braided preforms with respect to changing the diameter of the guide ring. Guide ring sizes are varied from 1.5 to 3 times the mandrel geometry. The results will assist in improving consistency between manufacturing and simulation stages to further advance process efficiency by reducing the number of process iterations.
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