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US 10,780,601 B2Granted
Blade cleaning for automated fiber placement machines
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsCorydon Hilton, Derek McCann
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods are provided for cleaning composite fabrication machinery. One embodiment is a method for cleaning of a composite application machine, comprising: displacing an anvil of a head of an Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) machine from an operation location relative to a cutter, cleaning at least one of the cutter and the anvil, and relocating the anvil to the operation location relative to the cutter.
Claims19
A method for cleaning of a composite application machine, the method comprising:
- operating an anvil of an Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) machine in a cutting position, wherein a front face of a cutter of the AFP machine slides along a back face of the anvil on a cutting plane when in the anvil is in the cutting position;
- transitioning the anvil from the cutting position to a cleaning position by displacing the back face of the anvil away from the cutting plane;
- cleaning at least one of the cutter and the anvil while the anvil is in the cleaning position;
- and
- transitioning the anvil from the cleaning position to the cutting position.
2 more elements
An apparatus for cleaning a composite application cutter comprising:
- a head of an Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) machine, the head comprising:
- an anvil having a back face;
- and
- a cutter having a front face that slides along the back face of the anvil on a cutting plane when the anvil is in a cutting position;
- a first apparatus that transitions the anvil from the cutting position to a cleaning position by displacing the back face of the anvil away from the cutting plane to form a gap between the front face of the cutter and the back face of the anvil;
- and
- a second apparatus that cleans at least one of the cutter and the anvil while the anvil is in the cleaning position,
- wherein the first apparatus transitions the anvil from the cleaning position to the cutting position.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.