Lower-cost fibre lay-up machines enable the CNC production of composite parts for everything from engine components to toy bricks. While CNC machining is now a familiar process across many branches of the engineering sector, its principles are still fanning out to new applications At Fokker Aerostructures' plant in Hoogevenn, the Netherlands, CG Tech's Vericut software - normally used for machining metal components - is finding use in the manufacture of composite parts. Fokker is part of a joint research project called TAPAS (Thermoplastic Affordable Primary Aircraft Structures, also discussed on p37). In building its composite parts, it needed to automate the process of laying up - placing carbon-fibre into the mould before pouring in the resin to bind the composite together.
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