Algorithmus Archives

FPP for Future: Applications, features & materials

Dear friends of Fiber Patch Placement,

While people around the world raise their voices on the streets at Fridays for Future, we are working hard to support a climate-friendly change by enabling the industrial production of lightweight, resource-efficient composites.

Reaching out to relevant manufacturers worldwide during this fall, we have presented Fiber Patch Placement successfully at CAMX (Anaheim, California) and Composites Europe (Stuttgart, Germany). Next opportunity to get first-hand information about newest FPP developments will be at Advanced Engineering (Birmingham, UK) and JEC Asia (Seoul, Republic of Korea). The dominating topic: Industry 4.0 automation for complex composite component – which, for example, can also be found in the still nascent, but strongly growing urban air mobility industry.

Enjoy your read!

Vour Cevoteam

Contact
+49 89 2314 165 0
advantages@cevotec.com

Applications

Automation and scalability for composites in urban air mobility

The press reported a lot on air taxis in the last weeks: The Lilium Jet is now mastering the transition from vertical take off to horizontal flight and just a few days ago the first Volocopter took off for a test flight in the middle of Singapore. Which means, in a yet foreseeable future, urban air mobility will no longer be a dream of inventors, but reality for passengers. But the still infant industry faces manufacturing-related challenges as composite technologies are needed that work economically at initially small volumes but can scale efficiently with the expected market growth.

At the Global Urban Air Summit in Farnborough, representatives from industry and aviation authorities discussed how urban air mobility can become a reality. Empowering manufacturers to automate the multi-material lay-up of geometrically complex lightweight components, Fiber Patch Placement certainly gained much interest at the event.

Technology

ARTIST STUDIO: new algorithm for exact prediction of draped patch-contours

The exact contour of every single patch on the tooling surface is very important for various reasons. For example, to make realistic predictions of laminate thickness distributions and as input for accurate FE models. To optimally reduce overlaps between patches while preventing the introduction of unplanned gaps into the laminate, ARTIST STUDIO software now uses an integrated draping algorithm. This eliminates the need for separate draping analyses and enables ARTIST STUDIO to deal even better with very strongly curved surfaces, especially with larger patch sizes. The draping feature is mapping a discrete mesh of each individual patch onto the surface, thus mimicking the behavior of the real-life application process. The edges of the patch can thus be predicted almost 100% accurately.

Technology

SAMBA deep-dive part 1: The cutting & feeding unit

In our last newsletter, we introduced the different SAMBA modules in an overview. Today, and in the following newsletters, we’d like to give you more insight into the different modules that make up a SAMBA system. The first module of the system is the cutting and feeding unit.

SAMBA Serie’s modules for material feeding and cutting differ according to the materials processed and can be customized. For example, SAMBA Multi features an automated sensor-controlled feeder supplying up to 4 tapes in parallel – suitable for tapes of 50 mm to 200 mm width. SAMBA Pro’s sensor-controlled tape feeder, gearing towards medium to smaller complex parts, allows for 12.5 – 50 mm tape width and < 300 gsm areal weight. For larger components and patch sizes, SAMBA Scale is on hand. All three systems are equipped with an ultrasonic or laser cutting unit and visual real-time quality inspection, including automated detection & correction of non-spec material. The portfolio is completed by SAMBA Step, the R&D system, featuring a manual material feed for maximum flexibility while developing new products and experimenting with new materials and patch sizes.

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Materials

SGL 50k TowPreg successfully qualified on SAMBA

Together with SGL Carbon, our Fiber Placement Center partner we have successfully tested the SIGRAPREG® TowPreg – a new material for industrial applications like e.g. for medical devices. The 50k TowPreg, a pre-impregnated carbon fiber roving, passed through the different units – feeding, cutting, picking – without any problems. Also, the automated material inspection showed positive results. TowPreg lay-up was performed on various materials such as 3D-printed molds, aluminum molds and resin films. The successful qualification has once again extended the range of processable materials for SAMBA, which now offers even more application options to our customers.

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Events

Haven’t seen you here…

The inaugural Global Urban Air Summit at Farnborough (UK) was an impressive experience. Top class representatives from the aviation industry and authorities worldwide discussed how future urban air mobility can become a reality. Our Fiber Patch Placement technology convinced with elevated flexibility and scalability in producing high-performance lightweight structures. It simply enables a production automation that ramps-up as fast and economically as urban air vehicles conquer the skies in growing volumes.

Also, Composites Europe in Stuttgart (Germany) was a success for Fiber Patch Placement. The interest in industry 4.0 process control at Composite Europe – as well as at CAMX in Anaheim (California) – was really astonishing. Following a first small gig in 2017 with the nomination of FPP for the CAMX Awards, we were now celebrating the official debut on the show floor. Additionally, Thorsten Groene presented how the discretization of fiber lay-up enables self-corrective process control and was a panelist in a well-attended session on the future of automated process control in composites production.

Another successful conference was the Composites in Motorsports conference in Oxford (UK). The presentation of our technology in the UK motorsport valley was well received – the flexibility of our systems services well some of the current challenges of this dynamic Industry.

In case you have missed us there …

Events

See you around next time?
We are looking forward to meeting you at the following events and conferences.

Advanced Engineering
Hall 3 / 4, booth L74
October 30 – 31, 2019
Birmingham, UK

JEC Asia
November 13 – 15, 2019
Seoul, Republic of Korea

Composites Meeting Nantes
November 13 – 14, 2019
Nantes, France

From the press

New FPP developments also found their way into various publications. Composites World reported on SAMBA saving time and material in production of hydrogen storage vessels. FINN, covering the Global Urban Air Summit, reviewed on FPP lightweight production 4.0. Also JEC Group and K-Zeitung have spread this subject. As always, we are delighted about these releases!