JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #111 - March 2017 - Special JEC World - o - 30

MANUFACTURING software
Artist Studio CAD-CAM software
Although Samba is the only system
capable of working with fibre patches, it
wouldn't "dance" without the guidance
of well-designed software. Cevotec's
self-developed CAD-CAM software
Artist Studio, with Patch Artist and Motion Artist, unites two coherent modules
for virtual product development. Patch
Artist supports the user in the creation
of optimized patch laminates whereas
Motion Artist generates a crash-free and
performance-optimized machine program for the Samba production system.

Patch Artist
Patch Artist is the fibre laminate design
module (Figure 2). Its user interface
is designed to easily define required
parameters such as patch zones on the
imported CAD surface, layer size, layer
orientations, layer thickness, tape width
and patch length. The layer orientation
based on already calculated load paths
can be constructed as splines within a
CAD system. The splines can be imported into Patch Artist or alternatively, load
paths can be generated as so-called guide
curves within Patch Artist.
The user can decide if the patches should
be placed only along the guide curve representing reinforcements or on the patch
zone defining the laminate. For the latter,
further splines, so-called slave curves, are
created automatically by parallel shifting.
If all the parameters are set, a single
mouse click brings the optimization
algorithm to work, which in the course of
few minutes optimizes the arrangement
of each patch. To produce a high-quality laminate with the best mechanical

Fig. 3: The Motion
Artist robot offline
programming module

properties, the position of the patches
must be optimized by varying from layer
to layer, transferring the loads over the
neighbouring layer from patch to patch.
The algorithm used to automatically
shift the individual layers to optimize the
laminate properties was validated at the
Institute for Carbon Composites (LCC)
at Technische Universität München
(TUM), where the effect of laminates
with different patch lay-ups on the failure
mechanism and the laminate strength
was closely investigated - a solid research
base that guarantees scientifically sound
results.

Motion Artist
Once the patch overlap optimization is
completed, the laminate data is transferred automatically to Motion Artist
(Figure 3). This module takes over the
offline programming of the robots
for the patch lay-up using dedicated
machine simulation software. Motion
Artist imports the lay-up position of each
patch on the preforming tool surface and
calculates the joint parameters of the
pick-and-place and the tool manipulation
robots by means of the inverse kinemat-

Fig. 2: The Patch Artist
laminate generation
module

30

jec composites magazine / N°111 March 2017

ics. Next, the manufacturing process is
simulated to validate the calculated robot
motions and detect potential collisions.
The software also optimizes the positioning process by bringing as little motion
into the six-axis robot as possible, cooperating with the simply faster four-axis
robot. Since in addition the curvature
of the mould surface is known and the
press-in depth of the gripper is adapted
for each patch, a uniform pressing of all
patches is achieved, ensuring that the
entire patch has contact with the mould
during the patch placement. Once verified, the program can be transferred to
the manufacturing cell.

Conclusion
Unveiled as a world premiere at JEC
World 2017, Artist Studio is Cevotec's
innovative easy-to-use CAD-CAM
engineering software tailored for Samba
to enable fast product development
- from CAD to machine data. Patch
Artist, embedded with a powerful patch
overlap algorithm, creates optimized
patch laminates. The laminate information is transferred automatically to
Motion Artist for programming robots
offline and generating machine data for
Samba. Artist Studio and the Samba
preforming system set new standards for
the automated production of complex
fibre composites based on the fibre patch
placement technology.
More information:
www.cevotec.com
Contact:
felix.michl@cevotec.com
http://www.cevotec.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #111 - March 2017 - Special JEC World - o
