AUTOMATED DRAPING OF WIDE TEXTILES ON DOUBLE CURVED SURFACES

Abstract

In many different industries like aviation, shipbuilding or the production of wind turbines, the draping of textiles is a common issue. Especially large components in long- and medium-haul aircraft have a high potential of weight reduction by using composites. In many cases increasing material and manufacturing costs are caused compared to metal design. Therefore automation is one approach to achieve profitability. A robot end effector for the automated deposition of 50 inch wide fibre fabrics was tested. The experiments were performed in full scale, with plies of an aircraft pressure bulkhead. When depositing these fabrics on curved surfaces, defects such as waves or wrinkles appear. In order to solve this issue, the end effector was extended by adding an adaptable material buffer. The development regarding mechanical design, calculation for determining the axis movement as well as the axes control is presented. Compared to previous attempts without an adaptable material buffer, an improved deposition quality was achieved. The results of the experimental investigation are shown.