AFP Layup Mandrel Tool Vibration Damping via Spindle Support
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for fabricating large commercial aircraft fuselages using automated fiber placement (AFP) face challenges in efficiently managing vibrations during the laydown process, which can lead to tool breakage and suboptimal layup quality, and require post-curing cutting of openings, increasing time and effort.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising an AFP machine with a layup mandrel tool featuring a truss core and detachable mandrel panels, where a spindle extending through the truss core is mounted to the headstock and tailstock to dampen vibrations, and the mandrel panels form a full profile layup surface, allowing for precise fiber placement and elimination of post-curing cutting by varying tow lengths and orientations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a traditional rigid mandrel tool is used during AFP, then structural stability is maintained, but vibrations occur during laydown causing tool breakage and suboptimal layup quality
Solution Approach 1:
The mandrel tool incorporates vibration damping features that change the mechanical parameters of the tool structure. The damping elements modify the natural frequency and damping ratio of the mandrel system, reducing vibration amplitude during AFP operations while maintaining structural stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The mandrel tool uses composite construction combining rigid structural components with vibration-damping materials. This composite structure provides both the necessary structural stability and vibration reduction capabilities, resolving the contradiction between rigidity and vibration control.
2Reliability
If openings are cut after fuselage curing, then structural integrity is maintained, but production time and effort increase
Solution Approach 1:
The mandrel tool includes pre-formed features such as recesses, grooves, or integrated mandrel sections that correspond to future opening locations. These features are built into the mandrel before composite layup, allowing openings to be automatically formed during the curing process itself, eliminating post-curing cutting operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The mandrel design merges the structural support function with the opening formation function. The mandrel simultaneously provides structural integrity during curing and creates the desired opening geometry, combining multiple functions into a single tool component.
3Manufacturing precision
If AFP is used to deposit tows on curved surfaces, then material placement precision is improved, but vibration control becomes more challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The mandrel tool incorporates vibration damping features at specific locations where AFP heads make contact during curved surface deposition. The damping elements are strategically positioned at high-vibration areas while maintaining minimal impact on overall tool geometry and AFP head access to curved surfaces.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively reduces tool vibrations, enhances layup quality, and streamlines the fabrication process by allowing for in-situ formation of openings and varying ply thicknesses, thereby reducing production time and costs while improving the structural integrity of the fuselage.
Implementation Method 1
The spindle is configured to damp vibrations of the mandrel tool during laydown by an AFP head
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
A system comprises an automated fiber placement (AFP) machine and a layup mandrel tool supported by the AFP machine. The mandrel tool includes a truss core and a plurality of mandrel panels attached to the truss core to form a layup surface.