must be smaller than those shown in fig5 hence it has been demonstrated that a standard braided equivalent to the conformable braid does not satisfy the criteria of having the majority of its fiber weighted in the axial direction fig6 depicts the cross section of a solid fiber 22 that would still be required in the core of the braid in order to satisfy the fig1 a area requirement as with fig3 it can be seen that the void volume 24 within this cross section is significantly higher than the size of the core such that the core and sheath are unlikely to behave as a single component as is the case with the conformable braid structure this represents a problem both in terms of handleability and in the likelihood for de lamination to occur between core and sheath in the composite it is possible to form a structure similar to that of fig3 using a traditional triaxial braid however the uniqueness of the conformable braid concept is that almost all of the required fiber volume is in the form of the axial tows or fibers thus the bias fiber that holds the conformable braid together is extremely small in cross section relative to the axial fiber the function of the bias fiber in this case is to loosely hold the axial.