Carbon fiber compression molded parts with finished painted surfaces
AssigneeGM Global Technology Operations LLC
InventorsDavid A. Okonski, John Patrick Spicer, Xiang Zhao, Hua-tzu Fan, Mary Gilliam
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Abstract
A part formation system includes: a mobile robot; a first material feeding device configured to feed carbon fiber prepreg material, one layer at a time, onto the mobile robot to form a stack of carbon fiber prepreg layers on the mobile robot; a second material feeding device configured to feed a paint film onto the stack of carbon fiber prepreg layers to provide a resultant stack of layers; and a heat press configured to form and cure the resultant stack of layers to provide a resultant painted part by heating and compressing the resultant stack of layers.
Claims20
A part formation system comprising:
- a mobile robot;
- a first material feeding device configured to feed carbon fiber prepreg material, one layer at a time, onto the mobile robot to form a stack of carbon fiber prepreg layers on the mobile robot;
- a second material feeding device configured to feed a paint film onto the stack of carbon fiber prepreg layers to provide a resultant stack of layers;
- and
- a heat press configured to form and cure the resultant stack of layers to provide a resultant painted part by heating and compressing the resultant stack of layers.
A method of forming a part, the method comprising:
- stacking a plurality of carbon fiber prepreg layers to form a first stack on a mobile robot;
- disposing a paint film on the first stack to provide a resultant stack;
- moving the resultant stack into a heat press;
- and
- heating and compression molding the resultant stack to provide the part having a painted surface as a result of heating and compressing the paint film along with the carbon fiber prepreg layers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.