THE DEVELOPMENT OF AUTOMATED LAYING: FROM THE BEGINNING TO OUR DAYS (review) Part 2. Automated Fiber Placement (AFP)

Automated Fiber Placement is one of the main technologies used today for manufacturing of modern composite materials from narrow bundles of 3.2; 6.35 and 12.7 mm wide, which are usually stacked in one sequence using a special head. AFP allows you to lay out parts with complex geometry. The second part considers the development of technology from its origination to the present day and provides the description of the laying process and modern equipment on the market.

Study of technological defects arising during automated laying of prepregs (review)

Industrial laboratory Diagnostics of materials ◽

10.26896/1028-6861-2021-87-11-33-38 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 87 (11) ◽

pp. 33-38

Author(s):

P. N. Timoshkov ◽

M. N. Usacheva ◽

V. A. Goncharov ◽

A. V. Khrulkov

Keyword(s):

Composite Materials ◽

Defect Formation ◽

Physical And Mechanical Properties ◽

Technological Parameters ◽

Fiber Placement ◽

Negative Effect ◽

Tension And Compression ◽

Technological Defects

Technologies of automated laying out of fibers (Automated Fiber Placement — AFP) and tapes (Automated Tape Laying — ATL) are used in the manufacture of blanks from polymer composite materials (PCM) for subsequent autoclave or other type of molding. The frequency of defect formation upon laying depends on the complexity of the certain part and the technological parameters (the tape width, speed of laying and idle time, temperature, deviations from the calculated trajectory, etc.). We present a review of the main defects thus formed along with the analysis of the reasons for their appearance and their effect on the physical and mechanical properties of composite materials. It is shown that the defects change the thickness and reduce the strength of the PCM under tension and compression. Moreover, the inaccuracy of fiber placement when using the AFP technology has a negative effect on the quality of the materials. The results presented can be used in the further study of the effect of defects on the PCM properties and reasons for defect formation, as well as in developing promising universal computational program that can provide reduction of the number of corresponding experimental tests.

ROBOTIC LAYING OUT OF PREPREGS AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO TECHNOLOGY TO ATL AND AFP (review)

Proceedings of VIAM ◽

10.18577/2307-6046-2021-0-3-87-98 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 87-98

Author(s):

P.N. Timoshkov ◽

◽

V.A. Goncharov ◽

L.N. Grigoreva ◽

M.N. Usacheva ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Composite Materials ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Manual Labor ◽

Automated Production ◽

Fiber Placement ◽

Complex Parts

With the growing use of composite materials, the automated production of parts using prepreg is gaining increasing interest. There are two main types of prepreg laying automation: Automated Tape Laying (ATL) and Automated Fiber placement (AFP). Both of these technologies are not always cost effective for all types of parts, and manual labor tends to be used to make complex parts with low production volumes. As an alternative to these two dominant automation solutions, there are 4 options for automated laying with manipulators.

Automated Fiber Placement of Composite Wind Tunnel Blades: Process Planning and Manufacturing

10.33599/nasampe/s.19.1538 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ramy Harik ◽

Joshua Halbritter ◽

Dawn Jegley ◽

Ray Grenoble ◽

Brian Mason

Keyword(s):

Wind Tunnel ◽

Process Planning ◽

Fiber Placement ◽

In Situ Impregnation of Continuous Thermoplastic Composite Prepreg for Additive Manufacturing and Automated Fiber Placement

Composites Part A Applied Science and Manufacturing ◽

10.1016/j.compositesa.2021.106446 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 106446

Author(s):

James Garofalo ◽

Daniel Walczyk

Keyword(s):

Additive Manufacturing ◽

Thermoplastic Composite ◽

Fiber Placement ◽

Review: Filament Winding and Automated Fiber Placement with In Situ Consolidation for Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Polymer Composites

Polymers ◽

10.3390/polym13121951 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (12) ◽

pp. 1951

Author(s):

Yi Di Boon ◽

Sunil Chandrakant Joshi ◽

Somen Kumar Bhudolia

Keyword(s):

Processing Parameters ◽

Filament Winding ◽

Reference Points ◽

Thermoplastic Composites ◽

Manufacturing Processes ◽

Fiber Reinforced ◽

Consolidation Process ◽

Fiber Placement ◽

Fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites are gaining popularity in many industries due to their short consolidation cycles, among other advantages over thermoset-based composites. Computer aided manufacturing processes, such as filament winding and automated fiber placement, have been used conventionally for thermoset-based composites. The automated processes can be adapted to include in situ consolidation for the fabrication of thermoplastic-based composites. In this paper, a detailed literature review on the factors affecting the in situ consolidation process is presented. The models used to study the various aspects of the in situ consolidation process are discussed. The processing parameters that gave good consolidation results in past studies are compiled and highlighted. The parameters can be used as reference points for future studies to further improve the automated manufacturing processes.

Effect of gap on strengths of automated fiber placement manufactured laminates

Composite Structures ◽

10.1016/j.compstruct.2021.113677 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 263 ◽

pp. 113677

Author(s):

Hiroshi Suemasu ◽

Yuichiro Aoki ◽

Sunao Sugimoto ◽

Toshiya Nakamura

Keyword(s):

Fiber Placement ◽

Experimental Investigation on the Influence of Fiber Path Curvature on the Mechanical Properties of Composites

Materials ◽

10.3390/ma14102602 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (10) ◽

pp. 2602

Author(s):

Huaqiao Wang ◽

Jihong Chen ◽

Zhichao Fan ◽

Jun Xiao ◽

Xianfeng Wang

Keyword(s):

Tensile Strength ◽

Path Planning ◽

Composite Laminates ◽

Bending Strength ◽

High Strength ◽

Bending Test ◽

Fiber Placement ◽

Fiber Path ◽

Path Curvature

Automated fiber placement (AFP) has been widely used as an advanced manufacturing technology for large and complex composite parts and the trajectory planning of the laying path is the primary task of AFP technology. Proposed in this paper is an experimental study on the effect of several different path planning placements on the mechanical behavior of laminated materials. The prepreg selected for the experiment was high-strength toughened epoxy resin T300 carbon fiber prepreg UH3033-150. The composite laminates with variable angles were prepared by an eight-tow seven-axis linkage laying machine. After the curing process, the composite laminates were conducted by tensile and bending test separately. The test results show that there exists an optimal planning path among these for which the tensile strength of the laminated specimens decreases slightly by only 3.889%, while the bending strength increases greatly by 16.68%. It can be found that for the specific planning path placement, the bending strength of the composite laminates is significantly improved regardless of the little difference in tensile strength, which shows the importance of path planning and this may be used as a guideline for future AFP process.

Numerical analysis of the temperature profile during the laser-assisted automated fiber placement of CFRP tapes with thermoplastic matrix

Journal of Thermoplastic Composite Materials ◽

10.1177/0892705717738304 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 31 (12) ◽

pp. 1563-1586 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Andreas Kollmannsberger ◽

Roland Lichtinger ◽

Franz Hohenester ◽

Christoph Ebel ◽

Klaus Drechsler

Keyword(s):

Carbon Fiber ◽

Contact Resistance ◽

Thermal Contact Resistance ◽

Thermal Contact ◽

Fiber Placement ◽

Composite Layers ◽

Geometric Boundary ◽

Laser Heat Source ◽

Placement Machine

In this study, a thermodynamic model of a laser-assisted automated thermoplastic fiber placement process is developed and validated. The main focus is on modeling the heat transfer into the composite with a laser heat source, the thermal properties of the tape, and the resulting heat distribution in the part, the mold, and the compaction roller. A new integrated analytical method is presented to calculate the energy input of the laser based on the geometric boundary conditions, including first-order reflection and laser shadow. The carbon fiber/polyethersulphone tape is modeled by combining literature properties of carbon fiber and matrix as well as based on experimental data of the tape itself. Also a thermal contact resistance between the tape layers is modeled based on a literature model and own experimental measurements. The created model is discretized and implemented in a 2-D finite difference code. With the help of this simulation, the temperature distribution is calculated during layup. The influence of a possible thermal contact resistance between the composite layers is investigated. Furthermore, an experiment with a thermoplastic fiber placement machine from Advanced Fibre Placement Technology GmbH (AFPT) was conducted in order to evaluate the simulation. The simulation and the experiment show a good agreement and prove that thermal contact resistance between the layers is negligible for the investigation process.

Automated Fiber Placement: A Review of History, Current Technologies, and Future Paths Forward

Composites Part C: Open Access ◽

10.1016/j.jcomc.2021.100182 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 100182

Author(s):

Alex Brasington ◽

Christopher Sacco ◽

Joshua Halbritter ◽

Roudy Wehbe ◽

Ramy Harik

Keyword(s):

Fiber Placement ◽

IMPROVED TOW-END DETECTION FOR FIBER PLACEMENT INSPECTION USING MACHINE LEARNING

10.12783/asc36/35826 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

ADRIANA W. (AGNES) BLOM-SCHIEBER ◽

WEI GUO ◽

EKTA SAMANI ◽

ASHIS BANERJEE

Keyword(s):

Machine Learning ◽

Learning Algorithm ◽

Image Data ◽

Detection Algorithm ◽

Automated Inspection ◽

Machine Learning Algorithm ◽

Fiber Placement ◽

Inspection Systems ◽

The University

A machine learning approach to improve the detection of tow ends for automated inspection of fiber-placed composites is presented. Automated inspection systems for automated fiber placement processes have been introduced to reduce the time it takes to inspect plies after they are laid down. The existing system uses image data from ply boundaries and a contrast-based algorithm to locate the tow ends in these images. This system fails to recognize approximately 10% of the tow ends, which are then presented to the operator for manual review, taking up precious time in the production process. An improved tow end detection algorithm based on machine learning is developed through a research project with the Boeing Advanced Research Center (BARC) at the University of Washington. This presentation shows the preprocessing, neural network and post‐processing steps implemented in the algorithm, and the results achieved with the machine learning algorithm. The machine learning algorithm resulted in a 90% reduction in the number of undetected tows compared to the existing system.