Provide (All Photographs) | Cevotec GmbH
Following worthwhile completion on the end of 2023, Cevotec (Munich, Germany) has provided the last word outcomes of the ACoSaLUS joint R&D enterprise, which sought to develop and verify an industrial decision that accelerates the manufacturing course of for sandwich composites. Efforts targeted aerospace manufacturing, which stays to be characterised by components which may be produced manually at extreme manufacturing costs and with restricted scalability.
Together with companions GKN Aerospace Deutschland, supplies supplier SGL Carbon, TUM – Chair of Carbon Composites and Technical Faculty of Utilized Sciences Augsburg, the enterprise superior the concept of Cevotec’s fiber patch placement know-how — it is in a position to laying up utterly totally different form of provides, from structural (carbon fibers) to auxiliary (glass fibers, adhesives), onto a 3D instrument to provide sophisticated aerospace components with one single machine setup — and launched new layup choices.
To quantify the consortium’s goal of proving (via automation) that legacy components can keep financially viable and manufacturing value will enhance throughout the aviation market could also be met, the enterprise workforce set an formidable objective to exhibit a layup value enhance to fifteen sq. meters/hour for a reference half.
Horizontal tail plane (HTP) fairing demonstrator.
A horizontal tail plane (HTP) fairing was chosen. On aircraft, it protects and shields the structural attachment of the horizontal tail to the empennage. This legacy half choices extreme geometric complexity and a sandwich development that mixes monolithic skins and film adhesive with a Nomex honeycomb core, making the handbook manufacturing tough and time-consuming.
The HTP fairing has put beforehand developed FPP capabilities to a verify and often called for the occasion of newest choices with a goal to hold out the demonstrator manufacturing in accordance with specification. The following desk summarizes key FPP choices deployed throughout the exact demonstrator
layup:
|
Key attribute |
Standing |
Description |
| Zonal suction | Commercially accessible | Unbiased suction zones contained within the gripper to permit rolling motion layup. |
| Superior rolling motion | Commercially accessible | Draping the patches with a rolling movement of the robotic alongside the path of most curvature, making use of mounted stress all through all of the layup. |
| Submit placement push-in | Commercially accessible | Use of the patch-gripper to extra push the patches/plies in areas of sophisticated choices. This choices imitates a typical handbook layup operation. |
| Submit-placement imaginative and prescient inspection | Prototype examined, in extra progress | Additional patch inspection with a robot-mounted digicam to verify placement in accordance with program. Image analysis used neural group algorithm. |
| Honeycomb gripper | Prototype examined, in extra progress | Mechanical gripper able to seize honeycombs with out inflicting any hurt, e.g., by needles, and to maneuver and place them onto the instrument. |
The combination of the above choices enabled the manufacturing of 5 demonstrator components, validating the potential of FPP in automating the manufacture of legacy components. On the same time, the mechanical effectivity of the half was not compromised. After performing bending exams in accordance with the OEM’s requirements, the FPP components confirmed 25% improved deflection at an elevated supplies deployment of decrease than 10% on account of deliberate overlaps. Together with the rise in mechanical effectivity, layup time moreover was significantly lowered by surroundings pleasant FPP layup.
In conclusion, the enterprise was worthwhile: patch layup was carried out completely
automated and the selection to remove intermediate debulking steps was confirmed. Consequently, the enterprise workforce reached the preliminary goal to of dashing up the layup course of. Pores and pores and skin layup confirmed the potential to increase the layup value by subject >7 events, from 1.5-2 sq. meters/hour (reference course of)
to 14.5 sq. meters/hour via FPP. Furthermore, essential stiffness was elevated by 25% with solely barely elevated supplies use.
By making the utilized sciences and methods developed on this enterprise accessible to FPP clients, this enterprise can operate a blueprint for extra automation actions inside legacy aircraft functions as manufacturing fees proceed ramp up.
This submit is courtesy of the CompositesWorld and AZL Aachen GmbH media partnership.