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2015
Conference Paper
Titel
"Multi-Material-Head". One tool for 3 technologies
Titel Supplements
Laser-assisted thermoplast-tape placement, thermoset-prepreg-placement and dry-fiber-placement
Abstract
Automated laser-assisted tape and fiber placement systems allow the stacking of unidirectional and non crimped fiber-reinforced tapes in any fiber orientation to produce load optimized and weight minimized multi-layered structures. Automated and reproducible tape and fibre placement processes allows short cycle times, a high fiber volume content and reduced scrap rates. So far fiber-placement systems were specialized for processing of a limited material spectrum. In contrast, the all-in-one »Multi Material Head« developed by Fraunhofer IPT is a flexible and cost-effective fiber-placement system especially developed for SMEs and research institutes. The novel tape- and fibre placement system is a laser-assisted thermoplastic tape, thermoset prepreg and dry-fiber placement unit and accomplishes three technologies (thermoplast tape placement and winding, thermoset prepreg placement and winding as well as dry fiber placement) with one tool only. Flexibility focuses different kinds of common fiber-reinforced raw materials as well as a modular assembly and software architecture to realize flexible production of FRP parts as well as scientific process investigation (e.g. using different measurement devices such as IR camera, pyrometers, multipoint radiometers). So SMEs can handle different kinds of common fiber-reinforced raw materials with low mechanical effort. Advantages of a laser-assisted fiber placement process are precise and swift temperature control, high lay-up rates and high opto-electrical energy efficiency of diode laser sources.