Aircraft Turbine Composite Casing With Removable Winding Stop
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing methods for producing composite material casings for aircraft turbine engines face challenges in accurately aligning the edge of the fibrous cloth during winding, leading to misalignment issues that affect the fibre volume ratio (VFR) and material properties, which are difficult to detect until demoulding.
Innovation Solution
A removable abutment is mounted on the moulding drum to facilitate the positioning of the cloth edge, ensuring alignment against a mark on the drum, allowing for precise winding and monitoring through visual markers or a cutting guide.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If the cloth edge is positioned manually on the drum without an abutment, then the device complexity is reduced, but the manufacturing precision of the preform alignment deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The abutment is positioned on the drum before the cloth winding begins. This preliminary positioning of the abutment establishes a fixed reference point that ensures accurate cloth alignment from the start of the winding process, preventing misalignment without requiring complex adjustment mechanisms during operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The abutment acts as an intermediary element between the drum surface and the cloth edge. It provides a physical stop and alignment reference that mediates the positioning relationship, ensuring the cloth is correctly aligned with the drum mark without requiring direct manual manipulation or complex positioning systems.
2Manufacturing precision
If the mark on the drum is used for alignment, then the manufacturing precision is improved, but the difficulty of detecting misalignment increases because the mark is hidden by the cloth
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of relying solely on the hidden mark on the drum, the abutment serves as a visible copy or representation of the alignment reference. The abutment's position can be visually confirmed during winding, providing an accessible indicator of alignment status without requiring the operator to see the hidden drum mark through the cloth.
Solution Approach 2:
The abutment can incorporate visual markers such as colored indicators or contrasting features that are visible during the winding process. This allows the operator to detect alignment status through visual cues on the abutment rather than trying to see the hidden mark on the drum through the cloth barrier.
3Ease of operation
If the cloth edge is allowed to move during winding, then the ease of operation is improved, but the manufacturing precision of the fibre volume ratio deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The abutment is pre-positioned on the drum to establish a fixed alignment reference before winding begins. This preliminary setup allows the cloth edge to be easily guided into the correct position without requiring continuous adjustment during winding, maintaining both operational ease and precision through the abutment's stationary reference point.
Solution Approach 2:
The abutment provides self-aligning functionality by physically stopping the cloth edge at the correct position. The cloth naturally settles against the abutment during winding, providing self-correction of alignment without requiring operator intervention or complex control systems, thus maintaining ease of operation while ensuring precision.
Data Source
AI summary
Method for producing a casing made of a composite material for an aircraft turbine engine, the casing having an annular shape and including an annular fibrous preform formed by winding a fibrous cloth soaked in a polymer matrix, the method including the steps of: a) positioning an edge of the cloth on a molding drum, this cloth having a generally elongate shape and the edge being located at a first longitudinal end of the cloth, b) winding the cloth on the drum, over at least one rotation, so as to obtain the preform wound around the drum, c) molding of the preform and hardening of the resin which is injected into the preform or pre-impregnated on the preform, wherein the method includes, before step a), a step i) of mounting a removable stop on the drum, and in that step a) includes abutting the edge against this stop.