By Patrick-Drinkwater

Spread Tow vs. Standard Tow

• Spread tow material can be a good compromise between using uni-directional material and standard woven material.
• Essentially the TOW is flattened into a broader thinner yarn.
• As a fiber tow weaves up and down to create a fabric, the strength is reduced due to the crimp in the tow.
• As you increase the number of filaments in a standard tow, from 3k to 6k for example, the tow becomes bigger (thicker) and the crimp angle becomes harsher.
• One way to avoid this is to spread the filaments out into a wider tow, this is called a Spread tow and there are a couple of benefits gained by doing this.