CFRP manufacturing process chain observation by means of automated thermography

Abstract

Since the last decade the demand of CFRP parts is rapidly increasing in the aerospace industry. A trend towards large scale and highly integrated parts manufactured by using dry textiles and vacuum assisted infusion processes is visible. One of the drawbacks of such composites so far is the mechanical performance compared to prepreg material. The complexity of the manufacturing process chain requires decent knowledge about the dependencies within each single step. Contactless Lock-In Thermography offers the observation of large scale parts at various stages along the process chain. The approach at DLR Augsburg of a robot based measuring system for industrial applications has been presented in previous papers. With this paper DLR-Center for Lightweight-Production-Technology in Augsburg will give insight into current work and results derived from first experiments.