Shaped Filled Roving Die for Composite Manufacturing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for manufacturing composite material parts, such as manual draping and automated fiber placement, face challenges in reducing production costs and variability in mechanical performance due to the need for additional steps like injecting slips into preforms.
Innovation Solution
An installation for depositing a shaped charged wick impregnated with a binder and ceramic or carbon fillers, featuring a die with a porous face for binder drainage and filler retention, allowing for increased filler concentration without filtration, enabling direct sintering of preforms without additional charge introduction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual draping is used to manufacture composite parts, then flexibility in handling is maintained, but production costs increase and layer positioning errors occur leading to variability in mechanical performance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical draping operations with an automated fiber placement system that uses computer-controlled mechanisms to lay down pre-impregnated tows. This substitution eliminates human error in layer positioning while maintaining manufacturing feasibility through automated handling and placement mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical state and properties of the fiber reinforcement by using pre-impregnated tows with controlled resin content and viscosity. This parameter control ensures consistent mechanical properties while enabling automated handling, thus improving reliability without significantly increasing manufacturing complexity.
2Ease of manufacture
If automated fiber placement with slip injection is used, then production cost is reduced, but process duration increases due to additional injection and sintering steps
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-impregnating the fiber tows with ceramic or carbon particles before placement. This pre-loading of fillers eliminates the need for subsequent slip injection steps, significantly reducing process duration while maintaining the cost benefits of automated fiber placement.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention merges multiple process steps into one integrated operation: fiber placement, filler incorporation, and impregnation are combined into a single automated tow placement process. This consolidation eliminates sequential steps like separate slip injection and reduces overall process duration while maintaining manufacturing efficiency.
3Strength
If filler content in wick is increased, then mechanical properties are improved, but binder drainage becomes more difficult and filler filtration may occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses porous screens with specifically controlled pore sizes that allow binder drainage while retaining fillers. The porous structure is designed with pore dimensions smaller than the filler particles, enabling high filler content in the wick without filtration losses, while still permitting adequate binder removal for proper impregnation.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention applies local quality by varying the pore size distribution in different regions of the screen and controlling the local concentration of fillers and binder. This spatial variation in properties allows optimal drainage and filler retention in different zones of the wick, enabling high overall filler content while maintaining manufacturability.
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
This approach reduces production costs and time by increasing filler concentration in the wick, eliminating the need for slip injection, and improving mechanical properties through enhanced porosity control during sintering.
Implementation Method 1
a die for shaping and draining the binder defined by at least one porous face... trapping the fillers in the wick... The porous face may have a pore size strictly smaller than the size of the fillers
Implementation Method 2
finally the particles are sintered to form the matrix... it is possible to directly sinter the preform consisting of a drape of wicks
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3
AI summary
The invention relates to a facility (1) for depositing a shaped filled roving (2) intended to be used for manufacturing a composite part, comprising: a device (10) for supplying a fibrous roving impregnated by a composition (16) comprising a binder and ceramic or carbon fillers, a die (20) for shaping and for draining of the binder defined by at least one porous face (24), the die having a cross section that changes between an inlet cross section and an outlet cross section, the inlet cross section being greater than the outlet cross section, a support (30) in communication with the outlet of the die on which support the shaped roving is intended to be deposited, and a first conveying device configured to transport the roving from the supply device through the die and to the support. The invention also relates to a process that uses such a facility.