Fiber-Reinforced Thermoplastic Composite Manufacturing Device
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing methods for manufacturing fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composite modules, such as aircraft fuselage shell elements, face challenges in balancing production effort, assembly effort, and production tolerances, with differential construction being time- and cost-intensive and integral construction requiring tight production tolerances.
Innovation Solution
A method and device where module components are positioned using a jig and connected by a pressure application head that traverses in the feed and counter-directions, allowing for continuous movement and pressure application, enabling improved tolerance compensation and reduced assembly effort, and enabling the production of large modules with compact equipment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If integral form of construction is used to produce complete module in integral manner, then assembly effort is reduced, but production effort and production tolerances requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The fuselage is divided into multiple barrel segments that are produced separately and then assembled together. Each segment can be manufactured independently using the winding and curing process, allowing parallel production while maintaining integral construction benefits within each segment. This segmentation reduces the production effort for each individual component while keeping assembly effort low through optimized joining of segments.
Solution Approach 2:
Longitudinal stiffeners are pre-positioned in depressions of the core before laminate winding begins. This preliminary placement ensures correct positioning and reduces assembly effort later, while allowing the production process to proceed efficiently in an integral manner without requiring tight tolerances on the core itself.
2Manufacturing precision
If differential form of construction is used to produce individual components separately, then production tolerances are easier to achieve, but assembly effort and time increase
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple components (skin, longitudinal stiffeners, and their connections) are merged into integral barrel segments through co-curing during laminate winding. This combining maintains easy manufacturing of individual components while reducing final assembly effort by creating pre-assembled segments that only need to be joined at segment interfaces.
3Productivity
If wound barrel mode of construction is used, then production effort is reduced, but production tolerances become very tight
Solution Approach 1:
The fuselage is segmented into multiple barrels that are wound and cured separately. This segmentation allows each segment to be produced with standard tolerances rather than requiring the entire fuselage to meet tight tolerance requirements, while still maintaining the efficiency of the wound barrel construction method for each segment.
Solution Approach 2:
A jig is used as an intermediary tool to position and support the core and laminate during the winding process. The jig ensures correct geometric reproduction and positioning without requiring the core itself to have very tight tolerances, thereby reducing production tolerance requirements while maintaining production efficiency.
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 effort and assembly time while improving tolerance compensation, allowing for the efficient manufacture of large fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composite modules with enhanced precision and flexibility in module size.
Implementation Method 1
The laying down of the laminate is undertaken via a laying down head with the application of temperature and pressure, as a result of which the thermoplastic matrix is in a molten state and the laminate is welded securely to the longitudinal stiffeners.
Implementation Method 2
the thermoplastic matrix is in a molten state
Implementation Method 3
The laminate layers have previously been heated in a furnace, not represented, such that their thermoplastic matrix possesses a viscosity that is suitable for the welding process
Data Source
AI summary
A device for the manufacture of a fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composite module from a multiplicity of module components, which are continuously moved in the feed direction and are connected together section-by-section. The device includes a tool mold configured and arranged to be continuously traversed in the feed direction for purposes of positioning module components relative to one another. A pressure application head is configured and arranged to be traversed in the feed direction and in the counter-direction for purposes of connecting the module components. The pressure application head is configured and arranged to move at the same speed and in the same direction as the continuously moving tool mold, and then in an opposite direction, in order to connect to each section of the fiber reinforced thermoplastic composite during reciprocal movement.