JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #102 - January/February 2016 - 52

automation

Intelligent automation
of the preforming process
Driven by technological innovations and new applications, the composite market is expected to show growth worldwide in the foreseeable future. The use of composite materials in the transportation
industry is increasing due to their advantages over metals, such as
reduced weight, higher speciﬁc strength and stiffness, increased
service life and overall design flexibility.

ue to their properties, advanced composite materials are used extensively
in both secondary and primary structures of commercial and military aircraft.
The automotive, commercial vehicles and
rail industries have also employed composites in many areas to benefit from the performance advantages of these materials.

The need to change
manufacturing methods
Aerospace OEMs are recognizing they have
to change the way they build aircraft in order
to accommodate a future pace of production
that has never been seen before. In order to
achieve the production rates corresponding
to the expected ramp-up, the production
process has to be totally re-examined. With
this growth comes the demand for improved
manufacturing technologies. Techni-Modul
Engineering, who aims to be at the forefront

Robotized lay-up & preforming cell

of innovation, recently improved the existing preforming stages for composites by
introducing intelligent automation into the
preforming process. The most common
manufacturing technology for composites
involves the manual stacking of sheets of carbon fibre material, followed by a curing step
in an autoclave, oven or press. The development of an innovative technology for the
automated fabrication of complex preforms
had to meet the increased market demand
and face the challenge of improving quality,
repeatability and accuracy while reducing
the final price-per-part cost.

Automated manufacturing solution
With their deep-rooted experience, TechniModul Engineering has developed a new
kind of automated manufacturing solution
that responds to these expectations by
ensuring the same quality every time a component is built, and therefore brings value to
the composite market. A manual approach
for cutting, positioning and forming fabric
layers to produce a preform will not have the
same repeatability as a robot. The manual
operation is prone to mistakes or defects.
The latest generation of robots on the
market are able to cut, pick and place but,
in addition, Techni-Modul has introduced
a robotised preform cell able to control the
correct positioning of each ply as well as its
fibre orientation. So the robot cell provides
supervisory functionality as well as production functionality.

52 jec composites magazine / No102 January - February 2016

By
Chantal WierCkx
Business Development DireCtor
teChni-moDul engineering

Full automated production line

Robotised preform cell
The introduction and functioning of the robotised preform cell were demonstrated and
explained during the TME's innovation days
that took place on November 17-19 at the
company's headquarters in Coudes, France.
An RTM I-beam component was preformed
by the cell without the operator touching
or positioning the fibres. The supervisory
functionality was also demonstrated. Two
types of cells are proposed: a flexible cell
that can be adapted to different types of
composite components to be preformed
in order to optimize the investment, and
dedicated cells based on the concept of "one
cell for one shape". With its additional cells
for preform insertion, moulding, injection,
demoulding, mould cleaning and finishing
operations, Techni-Modul Engineering
offers custom-tailored solutions for fully- or
semi-automated composite manufacturing
lines for small- or high-volume production
and supplies customers worldwide. n
More information:
www.techni-modul-engineering.eu

http://www.techni-modul-engineering.eu

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #102 - January/February 2016