A new fiber placement system for an automated production of thermoplastic composite structures

Technical progress in the area of mechanical and automobile engineering is always connected with progress in material development. Therefore importance and reasons of the material technologies for the development of components and systems are obvious. The aim of the employment of new materials are.. - enabling the manufacturing of new products, - quality improvement of existing products and - reducing costs. Fiber reinforced plastics is a material group, which promises considerable progress in these aspects. These expectations are results from the successful employment of Fiber reinforced plastics in sophisticated areas like aviation, motor racing or competitive sports. Main arguments in all applications is the attempt to reduce weight or mass forces. High costs are of less importance in these applications. But for further application It is necessary to reduce production costs. Using long fiber reinforced plastics enables the reduction of production time up to 600%. There by this produ ction cost are decreased /V. Therefore a Fiber Placement System was designed and installed at the Fraunhofer institute of Production Technology. With this system it possible to manufacture components in Fiber Placement or Winding Technology with production speeds higher than 1 m/S.