With the growth in advanced composite parts production, the need for sophisticated fibre placement and tape laying (AFP/ATL) systems in the North American market has never been greater.
“John Melilli and Composite Automation LLC have built a winning team to represent us on the North American market. Each team member has individually distinguished himself in the composite manufacturing industry. As a unit, they offer unrivalled expertise in a wide range of applications. We are very excited to have this dynamic sales force representing Mikrosam’s composites manufacturing solutions as we expand across the US, and now in Canada too. CAMX visitors are welcomed to meet Mikrosam and Composite Automation team at booth B27, said Samoil Samak, Mikrosam’s vice-president.
This Autumn, Mikrosam invested over USD 2.3 million in an advanced composites R&D and customer solution centre. The centre is fully equipped with Mikrosam’s latest suite of composites solutions including test panel manufacturing and testing, filament winding machine, multi-head AFP/ATL robotic machine, prepreg making machine, slitting and rewinding machine and Mikrosam’s Mikroplace software demo and training centre. The multi-head AFP/ATL robotic machine is configured to layup thermoplastic tape and tows, thermoset towpreg, and dry tape in widths from 1/8’’ up to 12’’.
The modern thermoplastic ATL head is equipped with laser heating for temperature control of the in-situ consolidation process. The thermoset AFP head is equipped with an infrared heating unit. Mikrosam’s customers can perform prototyping, testing, product design, technology development and can receive the necessary expertise to meet their specific composites manufacturing automation challenges.
“I am delighted to collaborate with Mikrosam, bringing a wealth of expertise to the field of composites manufacturing. We want to emphasise that Mikrosam provides the leading-edge technologies for automated placement of thermoset and thermoplastic fibres and tape using both advanced robotics and gantry systems. Since opening the customer solution centre, we have already had three groups visit from North America who have confirmed the advanced level of performance they saw at Mikrosam’s customer centre. I saw the system performing on various flat, highly contoured, open and closed surfaces. The equipment produced small and medium sized lightweight composite parts in front of our eyes. Mikrosam’s machines can solve many of the challenges facing today’s composites manufacturers. We are excited to contribute to Mikrosam’s growing business here in North America and welcome interested parties to visit their advanced R&D customer solution centre.” said John Mellili, president of Composite Automation, LLC.
