Lozenge rib tapes

[MicroSculpt]

Greetings!

Were the lozenge rib tapes cut from the excess material on the edge of the rolls, or simply whatever material was leftover?

Was lower pattern material strictly used for the lower surface tapes, and upper for upper surfaces? Or, was there mix and match?

And what was the width of those tapes?

Thanks!

Tom

[StephenLawson]

Dan and I disagree here but in my opinion all rib tapes were one piece around the rib profile. Usually for lozenge - upper colours. Width was slightly larger than the rib cap of said airframe.

[MicroSculpt]

Stephen:

I know that the 5-color pattern used solid colored rib tapes in both pink and blue. Were 5-color lozenge tapes also used? Or, was the use of lozenge tapes strictly limited to the later 4-color pattern?

Thanks!

Tom

[StephenLawson]

4 & 5 colour rib tapes were used. PS. Dan's at the OtF seminar this weekend will be back later tonight.

[sinbad]

There probably were several colors of tape. The National Air and Space Museum reported in 1980 in conjunction with the restoration of its Alb DVa that: "One source states that these tapes were blue; however, salmon-pink colored tapes were found throughout the original lozgene covering on the lower wings, so the replacement tapes were made to match."

Albatros D.Va German Fighter of World War I, Smithsonian Institution Press 1980 at p 73 - 74.

[StephenLawson]

Greetings sinbad; You are correct. Albatros OAW, Scneidemuhl supposedly used lt. blue or lozeenge, Albatros, Johannistahl used Salmon pink or lozenge. Fokker used lozenge or possibly CDL (clear oped linen.) Other manufacturers used variations of these.

[Dan_San_Abbott]

MicroSculpt:
Cloth manufactures supply rolls of fabric cut to the required widths. Albatros, OAW and Fokker rib tapes I have seen were 25mm wide. the process to make tapes of fabric is called "slitting". A roll of fabric is placed on the machine. The roll of fabric is put in motion (Away from unwinding the roll.) vertical cutting knives, (sharp as a razor) are fed into the roll and cutting into the cardboard tube. the knives are space at the requred tape width and slit the roll of fabric into many rolls of tape. a pin is put into the end to secure the roll tape.
There is another way and it is not as good.
In the cutting rooom they have a very long table about 4 feet wide and 100 plus feet long. the fabric is layed on the length of the table into a stack of a 100 or so layers as required. The hard pattern are layed on top of the the stack and the top layer is mark with chalk or colored pencils. Holes are drilled for match marks grommets or whatever and the using a vertical electric knife the stack of fabric is cut to make the varius covers for the wings, fuselage etc. Strips of fabric can be cut during this process for rib tapes etc. Then they have to be rolled. Very time consuming. These stacks of cut fabric are identified marked and taken to the sewing machine operators and the pieces are sewn into the various covers. Grommets are put on the fuselage cover and leather patches are sewn in the specific cable entry places and so forth. They did not make one cover at a time.
Albatros Werke used salmon colored tape, OAW used a blue tape, while some manufacturers used plain tape. Some manufacturers used woven tape. After the printed fabric came into use printed fabric tapes were used by most. I think the use of different colored tape was for parts identifaction purposed.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

[MicroSculpt]

Dan-San:

Thank you for the reply and info. Somehow I originally missed it.

Cheers!

Tom

[womenfly2]

Very interesting. To add to this question ....

Dan, how were the edges of the fabric tapes finished, just as cut, frayed, or pinked?

Just curious,
WF2

[StephenLawson]

It depended on the company. Mostly they wee slice cut as Dn escibed.