Development of a Shape Replicating Draping Unit for Continuous Layup of Unidirectional Non-Crimp Fabrics on Complex Surface Geometries

Journal of Composites Science

Berend Denkena¹  Carsten Schmidt²  Dietmar Schwittay²  Simon Werner² 

[1] Institute of Production Engineering and Machine Tools, Leibniz Universität Hannover, An der Universität 2, 30823 Garbsen, Germany;Institute of Production Engineering and Machine Tools, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Ottenbecker Damm 12, 21684 Stade, Germany;

关键词: draping;    fabrics/textiles;    process modeling;    automation;    lay-up (manual/automated);    soft-robotic;   

DOI  :  10.3390/jcs5040093

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The manufacturing of large-scale structural components is still dominated by manual labor in many sectors of the modern composite industry. Efforts are being made to establish an automated layup technology for complex structural elements. Processing dry non-crimp fiber fabrics (NCF) offers great cost opportunities and high deposition rates, compared to prepreg-based technologies like automated fiber placement (AFP). Here, the fabric architecture is considered during the draping of the plane textile on curved surfaces. In this paper, the development of a draping unit for balancing fabric tension and consolidating continuously across the layup width is presented. We introduce a geometrical process model to achieve a fabric-friendly draping of the used unidirectional NCF. The shape of the resulting draping front depends on the surface geometry, the shearing of the previously laid-up textile, and the positioning of the material feed. To consolidate the fabric at the altering draping front in an automated layup process, the shape of the continuous consolidation element can be controlled by the elongation of serial soft actuators, manipulated by parallel robot kinematics. The shape replication ability of the draping unit is promising for the implementation of a continuous, fabric-friendly draping process for complex surface geometries.

【 授权许可】

Unknown