No abstract

Coreless filament winding technologies possess the potential to flexibly produce lightweight rigid frame structures at comparably low costs. The key to versatility, geometrical freedom and cost-effectiveness is the avoidance of core elements. Existing research on the filament winding of rigid frames focusses primarily on “isotruss” or “lattice” structures, manufactured by depositing fibers on polygon-shaped mandrels with carved-out gaps. Therefore, an investigation into the performance of coreless wound laminates and their material characteristics under process conditions is performed. Therefore, generic 2D specimens were manufactured on a new fully automated 3D winding equipment and successively exposed to incineration, micro-CT analysis and tensile testing. The benefits of core elements are evaluated by additional reference samples and opposed to coreless winding methods. The research demonstrates the potential of coreless filament winding and inductively quantifies the positive influence of fiber pretension and core/die elements on the material properties at cost of decreased versatility, costs and design degrees of freedom.

A coreless manufacturing process for generic 3D rigid frame topologies will be introduced in this paper. The aim is to extend the field of filament winding from mainly 2D-shells and some exceptional cases of 3D rigid frames. This manufacturing process employs a coreless translation cross-winding method in order to continuously deposit a roving around deflection points in space. On this basis, a design methodology is being created and deductively verified by designing a beam for a three-point bending load case. The composite beam is designed on a macro level simulation approach to match the stiffness of a reference aluminum profile, which is commonly employed as structural component for robotic gripper systems in automotive assemblies. The performance of the beams is subsequently compared by three-point bending experiments. This demonstrates that the composite beam offers equivalent stiffness and strength properties with a weight-reduction potential of nearly 50% for bending loads.