3D Printed Water Cooled Tow Guide for Fiber Placement Machine
AssigneeUniversity of South Carolina
InventorsChristopher Sacco, Andrew Anderson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A solution for fiber placement tow guides, known as “scoops,” to be cooled that allows for increased heating of outgoing tows while having cooling channels within the scoop to avoid melting, layup of thermoplastic materials will often see material temperatures of over 800° Fahrenheit, which means the heat shield will be heated to even higher temperatures that distorts existing scoops to a degree where they cause unwanted layup quality or may even melt certain scoops.
Claims20
An improved automated fiber placement scoop comprising;
- a scoop comprising a scoop body;
- and
- the scoop body including;
- at least one fin positioned on a distal end of the scoop body;
- an internal cavity further comprising a porous internal support structure shaped to allow gas and/or liquid to flow within the scoop body.
An improved method for tow placement during an automated fiber placement process comprising;
- incorporating a scoop into an automated fiber placement device;
- employing the scoop to place at least one tow as part of the automated fiber placement process, wherein the scoop comprises a scoop body that includes at least one fin positioned on a distal end of the scoop body;
- and
- introducing a gas and/or liquid flow into an internal cavity of the scoop body, wherein the internal cavity further comprises a porous internal support structure shaped to allow the gas and/or liquid to flow within the internal cavity of the scoop.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.