JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #109 - November/December 2016 - 46

AUTOMATlON
carbon fibre

An innovative 3D placement technology

Dipl.-iNg. Marko SzceSNy,
Faserverbundtechnologie
IFB Universität Stuttgart
WilhelM rupertSberger
Head of Competence Center Plastics
FILL GmbH

T

he LOWFLIP process aims at
manufacturing large composite
parts (several square metres)
such as aircraft skin or wing sections,
truck parts and comparable structures in other transport areas where
lightweight components are required.
The core element of the production
process is a modular system of robotguided end effectors that can drape
pre-impregnated unidirectional materials directly in a three-dimensional
double-curved mould.
Process technology
The use of a pair of intelligent segmented gripper systems makes it possible to
equalize the length deviations between
adjacent fibres inside a ply during the
ply placement step, which occur during draping on double-curved surfaces
(Figure 1). These grippers were patented by the project partners and - in
combination with a highly adaptive
pressure roller - represent the main
innovation of this process technology.

Within the EU-funded research programme LOWFLIP (LOW cost &
FLexible Integrated Process), the Institute of Aircraft Design and
FILL GmbH developed a novel automated production process for
carbon fibre composite parts. The main objective of the LOWFLIP
process is the efficient automated manufacturing of fibre-reinforced
parts with significantly reduced investment costs as well as low
process energy consumption compared to state-of-the-art processes.

The robot-guided highly adaptive
compaction unit can place UD tapes
of up to 300 mm width directly in a
double-curved mould. The LOWFLIP
prototype cell that was put into operation already achieved layup rates up
to 18.6 kg/h of material on a complex
double-curved surface.
On simple geometries, such as flat or
single-curved surfaces, a layup rate of
up to 54 kg/h is possible with a standard material of 300 mm width and
300 gsm areal weight. The edges of
adjacent tapes can be placed with gap,
overlap or butt joints based on the part
requirements.

Fig. 1: Gripper and pressure
roll system - length deviations
are equalized by the segmented
grippers while the pressure roll
adapts to the mould surface, even
on strongly curved geometries

46

jec composites magazine / No109 November - December 2016

Cost reduction
Because of the separate material feeding and compaction systems within the
process, the investment costs for the
equipment will be significantly lower
than comparable state-of-the-art units
available in the market (target: reduce
investment costs by 50%). This is due
to the fact that each subsystem per se
is much simpler and less cost-intensive
than integrated state-of-the-art tape
laying systems. The robots are programmed offline with available software solutions.
Advantages
Compared to state-of-the-art processes, the
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #109 - November/December 2016
