CompositesWorld

MAR 2018

CompositesWorld

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TRENDS MARCH 2018 20 CompositesWorld Despite the advent of automated fiber placement (AFP) and tape laying (ATL) equipment, the promise of high-rate production of flight-critical aircraft components is still frustrated by the need to meet air safety inspection requirements manually. Currently, an inspector must regularly stop the AFP or ATL machine used to fabricate composite wing and fuselage structures, etc., and visually inspect the layup before proceeding. Profactor (Steyr, Austria), a non-univer- sity R&D; center, conceived of and now coordinates ZAero, a European Commission (EC) funded project, which aims to increase composite parts production efficiency by 30-50%. Profactor manager for machine vision Dr. Christian Eitzinger says that the ZAero effort, which began in 2016 and ends in 2019, will replace existing manual inspection processes during fiber placement that currently create a production bottle- neck. "The solution," he explains, "is an automatic inspection system that will detect gaps, overlaps, fuzzballs and foreign object debris (FOD)." For that to happen reliably, the inspection system must have a "learning component" that enables it to distinguish a normal part surface from one with these defects and also must differentiate between AEROSPACE the defects. Profactor's learning component also will be distinguished from those used elsewhere. Instead of training the system offline and then placing it into production as a "frozen design," the ZAero machine learning component's decision support tools will be trained online, using the data stream from the production line. "The challenge," Eitzinger Zero-defect manufacturing of composite parts AOC has the formula for your success. You can count on AOC for unparalleled innovation — backed by the best quality and service in our industry. @AOCresins Contact AOC at +01 866.319.8827 or visit us at AOC-Resins.com to learn more. Quality Innovation Service Inline Quality control for ADMF Inline Quality control for AFP Sensor for curing monitoring Integrated demonstra- tion with manufacturing database and decision support tools ZAero – Demonstrators

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