AFP/ATL DESIGN-TO-MANUFACTURE: BRID GING THE GAP

摘要

Automated fiber placement (AFP) and automated tape laying (ATL) advances over the past decade have enabled The Boeing Co. (Seattle, Wash.), Airbus (Toulouse, France), and a growing number of other aircraft OEMs and tier suppliers, for the first time, to manufacture large commercial aircraft structures almost entirely of carbon fiber composites. And the speed, accuracy and efficiency with which today's AFP and ATL equipment can lay down carbon fiber material holds much promise for volume applications outside the aerospace market. Although AFP and ATL speed and efficiency owe much to advances in tape/fiber heads, robotics and other mechanical equipment, the programming and control software that drives the systems is of vital importance because it forms the design/manufacturing interface, bridging the gap between the part as designed and the part the AFP/ATL process actually can manufacture. Further, production engineers rely on this software to anticipate and manage a host of variables in what have become, arguably, the most sophisticated and challenging manufacturing processes in the composites industry.