Automated cutting and handling of carbon fiber fabrics in aerospace industries

Angerer, Alfred; Ehinger, Claudia; Hoffmann, Alwin; Reif, Wolfgang; Reinhart, Gunther; Strasser, Gerhard F.

doi:10.1109/coase.2010.5584262

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…In conjunction with the small production quantities the variety of different parts increases the essential flexibility of a potential gripping technology [11]. The goal of an automated clearing of the cutter also causes the need for an integrated data transfer in order to adapt the handling system by information from the cutter (e. g. position, contour and material of the cut-part) [13]. Since in FRP-production many different semi-finished products like woven, non-crimped (NCF) or multilayer fabrics are applied, the handling system also has to be able to adjust to different materials easily and without manual interaction.…”

Section: Initial Situation and Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flexible gripping technology for the automated handling of limp technical textiles in composites industry

Reinhart

Strasser²

2011

Prod. Eng. Res. Devel.

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A high level of cost-intensive manual tasks in the manufacturing process of composite parts impedes a further propagation of those innovative structures in important German industrial branches like the automotive sector or aviation. Especially the handling of semi-finished goods in several key process-chains could not be automated efficiently so far due to a great variety of materials and part contours as well as difficult handling properties of the limp, textile parts. Hence within the presented work a highly-flexible gripper system based on low-vacuum-suction is introduced, which is the result of a methodical investigation in the ideal gripping principle. Special actuators and an intelligent control strategy are combined into a selective gripping technology, which allows an automatic adaption of the pressure based holding force to different contours and materials, by closing certain apertures of a perforated plate. The experimental validation of a realized robotic end-effector shows that the challenging requirements of modern composite production could be fulfilled as the structural integrity of the technical textiles is preserved during the handling processes.

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Section: Initial Situation and Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flexible gripping technology for the automated handling of limp technical textiles in composites industry

Reinhart

Strasser²

2011

Prod. Eng. Res. Devel.

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“…In pick-and-place concepts offthe-shelf components and technologies are, to a high degree, used to build systems that usually focus on picking material from some sort of cutting machine and placing it in a mold or on a flat surface. There are several examples of pick-and-place systems for prepreg Ward et al, 2013), but the approach is also very common in handling dry fibers, for instance those to be used in preform manufacturing (Angerer et al, 2010;Brecher et al, 2013;Reinhart & Straßer, 2011). According to Ward et al (2012), several pick-and-place concepts have been attempted but with limited impact, and as a result the commercially-available automation equipment for composite manufacturing is mainly limited to ATL and AFP.…”

Section: Prepreg Layup 322mentioning

confidence: 99%

Enabling Automation of Composite Manufacturing through the Use of Off-The-Shelf Solutions

Björnsson¹

2014

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Composite materials offer an appealing combination of low weight and high strength that is especially sought after in high-performance applications. The use of composite materials has and is continuing to increase, and the use of the material has been shown to provide substantial weight savings in for example aircraft design. With an increased use of composite materials follows an increased demand for cost-efficient manufacturing methods.Composite products are in many cases manufactured either by manual operations or by the use of complex automated solutions associated with high investment costs. The objective for this research is to explore an approach to develop automated composite manufacturing based on commercially available off-theshelf solutions as an alternative to the existing automated solutions for composite manufacturing.The research, which was carried out in collaboration with industrial partners within the aerospace sector, is based on a demonstrator-centered research approach. Three conceptual demonstrators, focusing on three different manufacturing methods and a number of physical demonstrators, are used to show that off-the-shelf solutions can be used for automated manufacturing of composite products.Two aspects that affect if it is possible to use off-the-shelf solutions for automated composite manufacturing are the rigorous quality standards used by the aerospace industry and the great variety in product properties and material properties that is associated with composite manufacturing.The advantages in using off-the-shelf solutions has shown to be that the solutions generally are associated with low investments and that published information about the solutions, and the solutions themselves, is generally available for evaluation and testing. When working with the demonstrators it has been shown to be useful to break down a manufacturing system into basic tasks and consider off-the-shelf solutions for each particular task. This approach facilitates the search for a suitable off-the-shelf solution to solve a particular task. However, each of the separate tasks can affect other areas of the manufacturing system, and an overall systems perspective is required to find solutions that are compatible with the entire manufacturing system. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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“…According to Lien and Davis, this type of system calls for the use of large tubes and automatic valves, which in turn generate bulky and complex systems [12]. Angerer et al [13] categorize the solution with high airflows and low underpressure as low vacuum systems and show examples of successfully developing the technique for the handling of flexible materials [13]. Another problem when using ordinary vacuum systems for handling flexible materials is that the material can be sucked into the vacuum cup, thereby damaging the material [14].…”

Section: Gripping Technologies Based On Pneumatically Generated Suctionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated Removal of Prepreg Backing Paper - A Sticky Problem

Björnsson¹,

Lindbäck²,

Johansen³

2013

SAE Technical Paper Series

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Automated solutions for manufacturing composite products based on prepreg often imply Automatic Fiber Placement or Automatic Tape Laying. These systems are generally associated with huge investments. For certain manufacturing applications it is interesting to investigate alternatives to find simpler and less costly automation. One example of an automated system could be the use of a standard industrial robot to pick single prepreg plies from an automated cutting machine and stack them to form a plane laminate. This paper is based on a case illustrating a product from the aircraft manufacturing industry. The case will demonstrate a pick and place concept on a general level and illustrate challenges that must be solved. The challenge selected to be the main focus for this paper is an automated process for backing paper removal. A literature review of different gripping technologies reveals several interesting technologies, and the most promising are tested for backing paper removal. The tests show that an automated removal process can be designed by using standard vacuum grippers in combination with mechanical clamping grippers. In order to lift the backing paper with a vacuum gripper an initial separation between the backing paper and prepreg is needed. This separation is most easily mechanically induced by bending the material. The proposed solution for automatic backing paper removal can be integrated in a manufacturing cell for manufacturing of the studied product.

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Automated cutting and handling of carbon fiber fabrics in aerospace industries

Cited by 15 publications

References 3 publications

Flexible gripping technology for the automated handling of limp technical textiles in composites industry

Flexible gripping technology for the automated handling of limp technical textiles in composites industry

Enabling Automation of Composite Manufacturing through the Use of Off-The-Shelf Solutions

Automated Removal of Prepreg Backing Paper - A Sticky Problem

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