Ensuring Accurate Composites Lay-up With Automated Deposition Machines

FiberSIM® Automated Deposition Design™ (ADD) software provides design tools that help users digitally “work around” the manufacturing limitations of automated fiber placement or tape laying machines when creating composite parts. These automated deposition machines often impose minimum course length restrictions on plies and require engineers to include an extended boundary alteration to account for this limitation. In addition, automated deposition machines cannot lay-up material accurately if there is a large step of multiple plies from the material edge to the tool surface. The machines cannot effectively “ramp up” on the step, and will, instead, lift up layers of composite material already deposited on the tool surface—negatively impacting the lay-up of a part.

Traditionally, engineers needed to make these alterations using manual design methods. This process was tedious, time-consuming, and error-prone.

When combined with the FiberSIM Advanced Composite Engineering Environment, the ADD enables engineers to automatically create minimum course extensions for all necessary plies at the same time. Users can digitally associate the minimum course extension to a transition point on the ply, and automatically apply the desired corner treatment to all necessary plies at that vertex point. The alteration is propagated to every necessary ply without having to manually select each one. Using the ADD Extended Ramp object, users can automatically “ramp down” the extended boundaries of the plies, making it easy for automated deposition machines to “ramp up” onto multiple plies without lifting up ply layers.

The Automated Deposition Design software helps engineers:

• Automate the time-consuming, error-prone process of creating minimum course extensions and drop offs that that address automated deposition machine limitations;
• Help manufacturing engineers create composite parts quicker and more cost-effectively;
• Enable manufacturers to realize the full cost and speed benefits that automated deposition machines can provide.