Patent ID: 7908956

Claim:
In a braider having a track for guiding bobbin carriers and horngears, the horngears each having four horns for forming at least two paths, a method comprising the steps of: (a) positioning 4N bobbin carriers on 4N horngears, where N is an integer greater than 1, said bobbin carriers and horngears positioned in a tubular braiding mode with the track and horngears configured to provide two paths intersecting each other; (b) operating the braider in the tubular braiding mode, to form a tubular braid section; (c) positioning the 4N bobbin carriers on the 4N horngears in a flat braiding mode, with the track and horngears configured so that there are N separate closed paths that do not intersect each other; (d) operating the braider in the flat braiding mode, to form a flat braid section; (e) switching between the tubular braiding mode and flat braiding mode while N of the 4N horngears are free of any contact with any of the 4N bobbin carriers, to form a continuous braid having at least one tubular braid section and at least one flat braid section; and (f) maintaining a translation speed of each bobbin carrier substantially constant during steps (b), (d) and (e).