Fibre Patch Placement (FPP) enables the automated production of complex composite components. The manufacturing of components with suitably-sized patches is used especially in the aerospace and automotive industries, for medical devices and sports equipment. In close cooperation with leading manufacturers of components for the aerospace industry, Cevotec is further developing the entire patch placement process according to the requirements of the industry.
Samba Multi has parallel feeding units for different materials that are processed in one production system and placed precisely on 3D sandwich cores or preforming tools. By mounting the FPP unit on a linear axis, the concept also enables the production of particularly long and wide components in aerospace applications. Adapted to specific component sizes, the patch grippers are scaled to DIN-A5 and DIN-A4 size to meet the requirements of common aircraft components. An integrated gripper station enables the exchange of grippers during the process.
"The automated multi-material lay-up of complex sandwich components has an extremely positive effect on process times and thus the production volume," explained Thorsten Groene, managing director of Cevotec. "The fibre deposition with controlled pressure can enable manufacturers to skip intermediate compactions and thus reduce process times significantly.”
In addition, Groene continues, FPP sustainably reduces recurring production costs in many applications: "Material savings of 20-50% play a major role, of course, but automation with FPP often enables further optimisation of the overall process.”
Additional potential for cost saving results from continuous quality control and monitoring during the production process, enabled by the numerous sensors integrated in the Samba systems.
On the software side, Cevotec now offers a plug-in for the modelling software HyperMesh, a leading FEA preprocessor. Based on the data defined in Patch Artist regarding geometry, position and alignment of the patches, the Artist Studio plug-in automatically generates a detailed image of the patch laminate in HyperMesh. The contour of each individual patch is used to model fibre orientations and overlap areas. Ply-based shell models as well as solid and cohesive zone models can be used for analysis, which can be performed on both sub-layer and patch level.
In addition, the new module Tape Artist features all the functions for efficient laminate design with endless fibre tapes for AFP processes to combine laminate planning for AFP and FPP. Tape Artist transfers the laminate to Motion Artist for process simulation and machine data generation.
Samba Multi and the new Artist Studio features will be presented at Advanced Engineering and are available towards the end of the year.
Cevotec will exhibit on Stand N86 at Advanced Engineering 2018 on 31st October and 1st November in Birmingham, UK.
