CompositesWorld

JAN 2016

CompositesWorld

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JANUARY 2016 32 CompositesWorld INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS needs. For example, some companies in Asia think they need to use a fully automated system right away, so they opt for turnkey solutions. But there are also small companies that still have labor available, so they choose smaller, less auto- mated systems." Fries says the bigger question is: What is the market? Solution must ft the market "What we see is that the solution depends on the industry and country," says Fries. He points out that the demand for composites equipment in Germany is slowing after so much investment over the past few years. "Now they must work through the learning curve of what the equipment can do for them and how they can make money." Fries says other countries, including the US and China, are now seeing the need for composites, so there will be a much bigger push coming from outside Germany in the future. "China is moving ahead very aggressively and will lead in sales and car production for the near future." Virtual testing a key to turnkey integration success Turnkey supplier Composite Alliance Corp. uses production fow simulation to optimize workfows for lean manufacturing, reducing the amount and cost of equipment. Source | Composite Alliance Corp./Techni-Modul Engineering SIDE STORY EVo is an automated production line capable of 100,000 complex composite parts/yr, developed in 2009 by the German Aerospace Center's (DLR) Center for Lightweight Production Technology site in Stade, Germany. "EVo was originally designed to make aircraft frames and stringers," explains net-shape RTM team manager Sven Torstrick. The objective? Mold 200 fuselage frames per aircraft for 500 aircraft per year, totaling 100,000 parts per year. Torstrick's group initially tried to source a single integrated line from one supplier, but even- tually split the line into six separate parts for bid: ply preparation, preforming, fne trimming, RTM, oven and software. Then there was a seventh component: "We found a supplier that could work with all of the other suppliers and develop a standard for how all the units would talk to each other," Torstrick points out. "They made the master command module, which creates the process recipes, monitors the process and controls start and stop functions." The ply-preparation module handles textile rolls and sends them to the automated cutter, where diferent materials and ply orientations are prepared per digital cutting fles. Cut plies are stored in a shelf system, from which a camera-based robot picks and places them onto a transfer table, which interfaces with the preform area. The next module uses a vacuum membrane press to consolidate the stacked plies, applying air pressure above the membrane and evacuating air from below the stack while the powdered epoxy binder on the material is activated using infrared (IR) heating. The resulting preform, now stable enough for robotic handling, is fne trimmed in the next module to net shape (eliminating the need for post-process machining) and a robot places it into the four-part RTM mold — an outer mold with all heating channels and inner/core molds where the preform is placed. The core mold is closed and the whole package is placed into the RTM press. "All frames look alike but are actually diferent geometries, so we needed to process many diferent parts per shipset," says Torstrick. "We must also use RTM6 [Hexcel (Stamford, CT, US)] resin, which needs a cure time of 90 minutes or more. In response, EVo was designed to inject and cure diferent parts immediately in succession, and can handle parts 2.5m by 2m by 40 cm, with a target time between two aircraft parts currently ranging from 30 to 40 minutes. (For an extended version of this Side Story, see "Learn More.") Automated RTM for aerospace Testing the system's limits A fne-trimming module in DLR's EVo automated RTM production line is shown here trimming a "Frankenframe" test preform, conceived to challenge the system's capabilities, to net-shape prior to molding. Source | DLR Institute of Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems Aerospace-capable integrated cutting An automated cutter and ply handling module for DLR's EVo automated RTM production line. Source | DLR Institute of Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems

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