JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #90 - June/July 2014 - 55

laser projection

Producing CFRP parts more than twice
as fast using laser projectors for aerospace
LA Composite successfully achieved this ambitious goal using
the Composite Pro laser projection system from LAP. With these
high-power projectors, it is possible to save in two ways at once:
production scrap is drastically reduced and more than 50% labour time is saved during the production of CFRP parts.

By
Thomas Armbruster
Marketing/PR
LAP GmbH Laser Applikationen

ing capacity is the most important
criterion.

A Composite s.r.o. (Prague,
Czech Republic) manufactures
composite parts for aircraft,
machines and rail-bound vehicles. For
its main field of business - the aerospace sector - the Czech CFRP expert
produces parts for primary structures
such as fuselages, wings and tails
using prepreg technology (prepregs
are preimpregnated semi-finished
products made from endless fibres
and a polymer matrix). The dependability of these parts, in particular, is
crucial since their failure would have
catastrophic consequences.
The high quality and dependability
of the company's products is at the
forefront of its developments.
The greatest production challenge is
the perfect positioning of the prepreg
sections, with correct alignment and
in a precisely defined order. Only
then can the composite parts achieve
the demanded characteristics for the
finished product. The parts often
have to withstand enormous static
and dynamic loads. Particularly in the
aerospace industry, the load carry-

Economic benefits
In the typical workflow of CFRP part
production for the aerospace industry,
LA Composite saves a great deal of
time, and therefore costs - through
the use of the lasers, the labour time
is more than halved. Thanks to the
high positioning accuracy of the parts
and the elimination of human errors
during production, the company saves
even more time.
Later repairs to defective CFRP caused, for
example, by incorrect
laying of inserts, cores
or reinforcements, can
now be more or less
ruled out. Furthermore,
this has significantly
enhanced the costeffectiveness of the
production process.

design specifications. Moreover, the
geometry of the components produced, for example for helicopters or
airplanes, have become so complex
that the production would be almost
impossible or at least far slower
and with a high scrap rate without
laser-based projection. The projector
operators are glad to have Composite
Pro as a colleague for their work.

Simple integration
The work process for the projectoraided production of CFRP parts for

Exact working
The LAP projectors
enable LA Composite
to lay the individual
CFRP layers of the parts
exactly according to the

Fig. 1: The geometry of helicopter or airplane components is so complex
that their production would be almost impossible, or at least far slower
and with a high scrap rate, without laser-based projection

No90 June - July 2014

/ jec composites magazine 55

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #90 - June/July 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #90 - June/July 2014