**4. Conclusions**

One of the most important requirements for the application of fiber-reinforced composites in large-scale productions is the reproducible production of FRP components with a constant quality. Reducing the time and resources necessary for the development of prototypes and to enhance virtual component development, appropriate methods for material tests and forming simulations are required. These methods, in turn, demand an application-oriented and, even more importantly, conclusive test technology to determine the characteristic material properties.

For kinematic draping simulations, a critical shear angle needs to be determined. Practical experiments have revealed that simulation parameters cannot be clearly defined for all material constructions based on the shear force/shear angle curve of the picture frame test. Instead, additional information is necessary to comprehensively characterize shear behavior.

The hardware and software developed for the recording and graphical evaluation of shear deformations by means of a laser beam enables fold formations to be automatically detected and quantified, and to be related to shear force/shear angle curves. Hence, a tool offering a wide variety of additional information for analyzing the shear behavior of reinforcing textiles is available. In the future, this tool may help users in practice to decide on suitable materials and to improve transparency in the design and construction process.

The extended test setup can be integrated into the currently established picture frame test without significant efforts. Moreover, no additional sample preparation is required, which results in considerable time savings as compared to currently available 3D deformation measuring systems. Therefore, this method is a cost-efficient solution tailored to small and medium-sized companies. Moreover, the accuracy of the extended picture frame test stand has been demonstrated for several high performance textile fabrics. Additionally, further knowledge was gained regarding the influence of fabric construction, e.g., the linear density of sewing thread, on deformation behavior under shear stress. This is a very interesting inspiration for more detailed investigations in future, because this affects not only the users of such materials, but also the producers. Another interesting application is the possibility to evaluate FE-based simulation by comparison of the attained surface deformations.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, E.W., S.R. and S.K.; methodology, E.W., M.H., S.R. and P.B.; software, P.T., A.B. and S.R.; validation, E.W. and S.R.; formal analysis, P.T. and S.R.; investigation, P.B., E.W. and S.R.; data curation, S.R. and P.T.; writing—original draft preparation, E.W., S.R. and P.T.; writing—review and editing, S.K., M.H., P.T, A.B., E.W. and S.R.; visualization, S.R., P.T. and E.W.; supervision, S.K. and M.H.; project administration, S.K. and M.H.; funding acquisition, S.K. and M.H.

**Funding:** This research was funded by Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF, Germany, project executing organization DLR, gran<sup>t</sup> number 01DS14023) and the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH, Hungary, gran<sup>t</sup> number TÉT-12-DE-1-2013-0006, K100949 and PD116122). The APC was funded by the SLUB/TU, Dresden.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.
