US 12,617,150 B2Granted

Apparatus and system for depositing fiber material

AssigneeFabheads Automation Private Limited

InventorsDhinesh Kanagaraj, Akshay Ballal, Srinath Ramesh

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Abstract

An apparatus (100), assembly and process for depositing fiber material on a surface (131) is provided herein. The apparatus (100) comprises an material extruder (101) having a clutching mechanism configured to engage a fiber material with a extruder motor that is configured to feed said fiber material into a filament guide. The apparatus (100) further includes a modular layup nozzle (109) comprising a cold end portion (110), hot end portion (116) and output nozzle (108). The cold end portion (110) is configured to receive said fiber material and cool down the temperature thereof by using a coolant before said fiber material enters a hot end portion (116) of the apparatus (100). The hot end portion (116) further comprises a heat block (118) that is configured to convert the fiber material into a molten form and deposit said fiber material into a composite part (131) through a output nozzle (108). The fiber material is then cut by a cutting assembly (103) after a deposit operation is complete.

Claims25

Dependent claims

An apparatus (100) for depositing a fiber material onto a surface (131), the apparatus (100) comprising:

a material extruder (101) comprising a switchable clutching mechanism, an extruder motor (105), and a filament guide (106), wherein the switchable clutching mechanism is configured to (i) engage the fiber material with the extruder motor (105) during and to initiate a deposit operation of the filament such that the extruder motor (105) is configured to feed the fiber material into the filament guide (106), and (ii) disengage the fiber material and the extruder motor (105) both during and upon completion of the deposit operation;
and
a modular layup nozzle (109) comprising:
a cold end portion (110) configured to receive the fiber material from the filament guide (106) and cool down the temperature of the fiber material by using a coolant;
wherein the cold end portion (110) comprises a helical core (112) comprising a channel (117) configured for helical flow of the coolant;
and
a hot end portion (116) comprising a heat block (118) that is configured to convert the fiber material into a molten form and deposit the molten fiber material through an output nozzle (108) to form a composite part (134).

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.