JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #54 - January 2010 - 49

Aer osp ace on the use of long-range projection systems mounted high up in the factories’ ceilings to provide greater coverage with fewer projectors. New control software features such as multi-tasking can greatly benefit a wind turbine manufacturer, using a single system to project onto multiple wind turbine moulds in parallel, thereby increasing the ROI for the laser projection system. An example of how a single projection system can be arranged to cover multiple moulds is shown below (Figure 1). More information Virtek is a world leader in the development and distribution of precision industrial laser systems. From Aerospace, Formula 1 and wind-energy to metal working and construction, customers around the world trust Virtek to provide help overcoming challenges and supplying the best solutions. wind material onto ever-larger automated mandrels. Their main function is to place huge amounts of material in strips. The accurate placement of special materials on the mandrels depends more and more on laser projectors, which can be used as a reliable guide to place special features such as window or door doublers. Such laser-guided hand applications are vital to obtaining the full benefit of the automated equipment. Stopping the automated equipment and manually measuring parts to be applied to the aircraft exterior (without a laser projector) would be slow, tedious and error prone. Many of these automated tape-laying machines and mandrels are becoming too large for conventionally targeted projection systems. For instance, in the case of a large mandrel, the projector would be required to see both ends clearly in order to see the targets required to create a reference frame. Up to a certain point, long-range projectors are a straightforward solution, provided enough space is available and no obstructions exist to block the projection. A clear line of sight to the targets and the projection area are required, and should be simulated prior to installing the system. Longrange projectors have been known to work over 10 m in distance and still achieve highaccuracy. Fig. 1: Using multitasking to take advantage of the shape of tools and projection capacity. Assembly of carbon fibre on mandrels and large structures Advances in automated tape-laying and fibre-placement machines would lead one to conclude that laser projection is in decline. In fact, new applications for laser projection used in conjunction with these automated devices are being identified continuously. On large automated parts, the tape laying process must often be interrupted to perform special cuts or material applications manually on the material. Here, laser projectors are a crucial aid for guiding the operator to carry out special tasks accurately. With laser projectors, the operator no longer needs to make changes to the tape layer head or perform any manual measurements on the ply layup surface. This saves considerable time and also leads to improved material usage, which is a huge benefit on its own. Advances in material technology are leading designers to become bolder and to design larger and larger composite parts. In order to achieve the weight savings so critical to the creation of environmentally friendly and more economical products, we are seeing designers incorporate more of these larger composite parts in their designs than ever before. Automatic tape layers are doing the bulk of this work as they Fig. 2: Large work surface requiring targeted projection. As these single-piece composite aircraft sections get longer and wider, an alternative solution is required. One possible solution, which has been patented, is to place “target bars” in front of the projector, as close as possible to the layup surface but not actually connected to the layup tool. Some refer to these as “reference jacks” or simply “ref-jacks”. They provide target locations for the projector system to operate properly. They act as targets on No54 January 2010 / jec composites magazine

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #54 - January 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #54 - January 2010