JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #96 - April 2015 - 46

laser placement

How does the laser system work? The
projectors hang from swivelling arms
at regular intervals, at a height of about
four metres above the model. They
project individual lines or outlines from
the digital construction plans onto the
work surface at a scale of 1:1 (figure 3)
This means that the staff know precisely
where to place the CFRP mats and in
what order, and they can align them with
the laser lines with millimetre precision.
It is also possible to reproduce warnings,
notes, and numberings. This gives staff
extra support and increases the reliability
of the production process.

Fig. 3: Composite Pro projects individual lines or
outlines from the digital construction plans onto the
work surface at a scale of 1:1

Three laser colours
for different information
To make it easier to differentiate between
steps, LAP has also fitted the laser system
with a multicolour functionality which
provides three projection colours: the
green and red integrated laser sources
can be switched on at the same time
to produce yellow as the third colour.
Composite Pro can display the three colours at the same time and independently
of one another.

Users can control
projectors using tablet PCs
The projectors are connected to a central
server in a control cabinet, on which all of
the projection data is saved. The server is
connected to several clients, which can be
controlled using a keyboard and mouse,
a touchscreen, or even - in the most
recent development - with a Windows®
tablet PC (figure 4). This makes work
much easier for users, who are no longer
being dragged away from the production

process and their important routine.
Instead of having to go to the stationary
client PC, which can sometimes be some
distance away, staff can now select the
next production step straight from their
tablet PC. The display can show the current work situation as an outline drawing
or in different 3D views. Users can switch
between projected shapes instantly, without any waiting time at all. The intuitive
software control is also proving particularly popular. All of the functions can be
mastered in less than an hour.

companies can use to program their own
applications so that the projectors can be
connected to their own control systems.
More and more aircraft companies ideally
want to integrate the laser system straight
into their quality management system.
LAP is therefore looking into whether it
would be worth adding cameras to the
laser system in the future, which would
document every step with photos. The
aircraft company could save them in a
database and prove that the production
steps are correct at any given time.

Compared to the mechanical templates
and aids that aircraft companies previously had to use, wing construction is now
faster, more flexible, and more reliable
using the Composite Pro laser system.
While no subsequent adjustments can be
made to the internal structure of defective
CFRP parts that arise because the layers
have been laid in incorrectly or imprecisely, it is now virtually impossible for this
to happen. If the design of the parts being
produced changes at the last minute, companies no longer have to have expensive
new templates made. Instead, they simply
need to supply the updated CAD data to
the projectors.

Laser projectors improve
SMEs' competitive advantage

Fig. 4: Controlling the LAP projectors via a Windows
tablet PC makes work much easier for the user;
staff can select the next production step straight
from their tablet PC

Easy integration
into the IT landscape
The software is compatible with all of
the usual CAD data formats used in
the industry. To make it even easier to
integrate the system into individual
IT landscapes, LAP has developed an
Application Programming Interface
(API). This is a software package which

46 jec composites magazine / No96 April 2015

Working with Airbus has boosted LAP's
growth, particularly on the Asian market.
Particularly for smaller companies in the
aircraft industry, investing in the laser
system pays for itself very quickly, as it
can increase production rates by up to
100%. Furthermore, these companies can
quickly manufacture components with
complex geometries, they are no longer
reliant on expensive templates, and they
can reduce waste and reworking. Another
advantage of Composite Pro is that the
projectors are very light. They only weigh
three kilogrammes and are by far the
lightest devices on the market. If a projector fails, it can be quickly replaced by one
person. The heavier products available
from competitors require lifting platforms
and several people.
News of these benefits is now starting to
reach other industries too. The manufacturers of rotor blades for wind power
plants, for example, want to get in on the
act as well. A few years ago, many manufacturers worked on paper when designing
the rotor blades, so there was no database
for laser projectors. But now things are
starting to change. Product designers and
engineers are increasingly working with
CAD data in this industry too, and are
therefore laying the foundations for using
the Composite Pro laser system in their
production processes. n
More information:
www.lap-laser.com
http://www.lap-laser.com
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #96 - April 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #96 - April 2015
