CHAPTER 10
FABRICATION AND MANUFACTURE
Learning Objective: Upon completion of this chapter, you will be able to
identify and understand the tools, equipment, and procedures used to cut,
layout, and fabricate specified projects.
As an Aircrew Survival Equipmentman, you
need to know what materials are best suited for
the job at hand if you are to be considered a
master craftsman of your trade. Therefore, to lay
the groundwork to aid you in becoming a skilled
PR, this chapter discusses the textile materials,
tapes, webbing, thread, cards, knots, and seams
you will use.
Many of the repairs you will be required to
make can be accomplished by replacing missing
or worn hardware. There are occasions when
minor repairs require hand sewing because
machine sewing is impractical or impossible. For
instance, it might be advisable to make minor
repairs to aircraft upholstery by hand sewing the
repair in the aircraft rather than by bringing the
item to the shop. On the other hand, most sewing
is done by a sewing machine. A seam is usually
constructed faster, and is more durable, when a
sewing machine is used. The use of a sewing
machine gives the seam a better appearance. To
do your job right, you must know the types of
handmade and machine-made seams and how to
make them.
TEXTILE MATERIALS,
TERMS, AND MEANINGS
When a PR talks about warp, he doesn’t mean
something’s out of shape; and when he talks about
filling, he isn’t referring to teeth. He’s using terms
textile manufacturers use, terms that are standard
throughout the textile industry. The Navy uses
these standardized textile terms to identify and
classify materials on Navy stock lists. Aircrew
Survival Equipment Changes and Bulletins also
contain some of these terms. To comply with these
repair instructions, you must first understand the
terms used in them.
FIBER AND FILAMENT
Fiber is the basic unit used in the fabrication
of textile yarns and fabrics. Vegetable, animal,
and mineral fibers are natural fibers; nylon,
dacron, and rayon are synthetic fibers. A filament
is an individual strand of material, and can be any
length. Filament is also another word for fiber,
usually used when indicating or referring to
synthetic fibers. A fiber, or filament, is the
smallest unit in any type of cloth. An example is
a silk filament, which may vary in length from
300 to 1,000 yards. Synthetic filaments may be
several miles long.
S t a p l e
The staple is the smallest unit of a naturally
occurring fiber, or a synthetic filament cut in short
lengths to be combined with other fibers in the
manufacture of a variety of materials. When used
in reference to the naturally occurring fibers, it
denotes quality or fineness, such as “long staple”
cotton.
Yam
Yarns are continuous strands of textile fibers
or filaments, in a form suitable for manufacturing
textile materials. The strength of the yarn is
influenced by fiber strength, size, and length; size
of the yarn; and tightness of twist. The strength
of textile fabrics is determined by yarn strength
and weight. You may form yarn by any of the
following processes: a number of fibers twisted
together, a number of filaments laid together
without twisting, or a number of filaments twisted
together. Yarns formed by twisting a number of
filaments together are referred to as multifilament
(many filament) yarns. Ply yarn is two or more
single yarns twisted together.
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