Automated fiber placement with course trajectory compensation
AssigneeCGTech
InventorsThomas Yarker, William H. Hasenjaeger
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Various automated fiber placement systems and methods are disclosed. The system can determine steerable paths for the application of a composite material over highly contoured surfaces. The system can determine when a course trajectory would violate a steering limitation (e.g., a maximum bendability of the composite material) and can adjust the trajectory to avoid such violations. The adjustment can create gaps between adjacent courses, which can have a generally flared peripheral shape. The system can fill such gaps with subsequent courses of the composite material. Thus, the system can automatically apply composite material to highly contoured surfaces while also avoiding violation of the steering limitations.
Claims15
A system for automatically determining a layer of steerable courses of a composite material for application to a form by an automated fiber placement machine, each course including a plurality of tows, the system comprising:
- a non-transitory storage that stores data related to the contours of the surface;
- and
- a computing system comprising one or more computing devices, the computing system in communication with the non-transitory storage and programmed to:
- determine a plurality of parallel paths for the courses over the surface;
- identify a steering violation in at least one of the parallel paths;
- replace at least some of the parallel path that includes the steering violation with a flared path that does not include the steering violation;
- and
- determine one or more filler paths located in a gap between the flared path and an adjacent one of the parallel paths.
A computer implemented method of providing temperature-compensated control of an automated fiber placement machine that is configured to apply a plurality of layers of composite material to a form, each layer including a plurality of courses, each course including a plurality of tows, the method comprising, under the control of one or more electronic processors:
- receiving temperature data;
- determining a plurality of course trajectories over the form;
- and
- compensating for a temperature dependent change in the composite material's characteristics, wherein such compensating comprises:
- adjusting, using the temperature data, at least one of the course trajectories to form an adjusted trajectory.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.