JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 50

KNOW-HOW
Preform Control

Towards the on-line qualification of carbon preforms produced by AFP
Together with Matrasur Composites, the Ecole des Mines de Douai (France) developed an Automated Fibre-Placement (AFP) system capable of producing carbon-fibre preforms directly from dry carbon tapes in order to avoid the use of prepregs and to reduce composite manufacturing costs in the aerospace industry. Within the framework of a research work in partnership with EADS and Aerolia, they identified a method to characterize fibre-placement quality during manufacturing.
placement, using the dry fibre tow directly from the coil and placing it in the desired location and direction on a mould surface. The Ecole des Mines de Douai and Matrasur Composites developed an automated placement head (see Figure 1) for the placement of complex-shape parts with, for instance, a double curvature or restrained access areas. The fibre coils are mounted above the placement head, moving along with it to allow complex placement paths. The fibre tows are unwound, engaged and cut automatically. Preform cohesion prior to the injection step is ensured by spraying a binder on the placement area. The binder will represent a few percent of the total preform mass and is chosen with respect to the type of resin used to manufacture the final composite part.

MYLÈNE DELÉGLISE,
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR,

CHRISTOPHE BINÉTRUY, PROFESSOR, DPT. OF POLYMER AND COMPOSITES TECHNOLOGY & MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, ECOLE DES MINES DE DOUAI

n the aerospace industry, composite manufacturing generally involves the use of prepregs or the infusion of non-crimp fabrics, which are both semi-products. To reduce costs, technologies capable of producing preforms ready to be infused, such as 3D woven or knitted structures, 3D braids or fibre placement, are currently being developed. The main advantage is that a 3D structure is obtained directly from a 1D raw material, the carbon-fibre yarn. It is then possible to achieve higher performance without being constrained by the 2D architecture of fibre mats, by taking into account the loads on the final part when designing the preform.

I

Dry fibre placement technology
Dry fibre placement technology is inspired by the filament winding process, which produces continuous-fibre components but is limited to structures with positive curvatures. An anthropomorphic robot equipped with a placement head was developed to produce preforms for complex-shape parts. The robot allows a flexible placement path and uses a compressive roller as a placement actuator to place the fibres. This technology takes advantage of the anisotropy of composites. It was developed for thermoset or thermoplastic preimpregnated carbon-fibre tows or tapes. However, prepregs often involve high costs, because they need to be stored in a cold room to prevent premature polymerization and require local heating during the consolidation step. This tends to overcrowd the placement system, thus limiting part shape complexity. To overcome these issues and meet cost and time efficiency requirements, recent developments focus on dry fibre-tow

Fig. 1: Automated dry-carbon-fibre placement robot

On-line placement quality control
To enhance this set-up, the placement process can be controlled by a force cell fitted between the placement head and the robot arm. The set-up could prove more effective and less invasive than an on-line visual or optical control device. The following explains how it can help decide whether a preform is valid for manufacturing, or capable of providing the mechanical performance required for the final composite.

50

jec composites magazine / No57 May 2010



JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010

Cover
Editorial
Market Place
Advertisers
Index
Contents
NEWS WORLDWIDE
- Companies
- Agenda of events
- Equipment
BUSINESS
- Market survey
- Trends
- Niche Market
- Human Capital
FEATURE - AUTOMATION
- 3D X-ray
- Process
- CNC
- Control
- FCS
- Filament winding
- Robotics
USERS' PLATFORM
- Composites in the world
- Successful Partners
- Application
KNOW-HOW
- Preform Control
- Thermoplastics
- Mould
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - Cover
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 2
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - Editorial
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - Market Place
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - Index
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - Contents
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 7
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - - Companies
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - - Agenda of events
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - - Equipment
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 11
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 12
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 13
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 14
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - BUSINESS
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - - Market survey
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 17
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - - Trends
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 19
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 20
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 21
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 22
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - - Niche Market
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - - Human Capital
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - FEATURE - AUTOMATION
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - - 3D X-ray
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 27
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - - Process
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 29
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 30
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - - CNC
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - - Control
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 33
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 34
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - - FCS
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 36
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - - Filament winding
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - - Robotics
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - USERS' PLATFORM
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - - Composites in the world
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 41
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - - Successful Partners
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 43
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - - Application
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 45
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 46
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 47
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 48
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - KNOW-HOW
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - - Preform Control
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 51
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 52
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - - Thermoplastics
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 54
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 55
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - - Mould
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 57
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 58
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 59
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #57 - May 2010 - 60
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