The composite industry has seen tremendous growth over the past few decades with composites being used across various industries such as aerospace, automotive, wind energy and more. As composite parts grow larger and more complex to meet engineering requirements, automated fiber placement (AFP) and automated tape laying (ATL) technologies have emerged as highly productive manufacturing solutions.

Automated Fiber Placement

Automated fiber placement techniques have enabled precise placement of reinforcement fibers or tows onto a substrate without the need for labor-intensive hand layups. In AFP, tows of carbon, glass or other fibers are drawn from spools and continuously laid down onto the tool or mold surface under computer control. Modern AFP machines can lay fiber at very high deposition rates of over 10 kg/hour with extremely high precision.

Automated Fiber Placements And Automated Tape Laying Machines work based on the principle of tow steering where the fiber tows can be controlled and changes in their trajectory and overlap is programmed to achieve the desired part design. Most AFP machines today use creel systems to carry multiple fiber spools and lay multiple tows side by side to cover larger areas faster. Advanced AFP machines are now integrated with automated fiber supply systems and capability to lay hybrid fiber materials as well as add infusion lines for resin infusion. Today's AFP machines are driven by sophisticated 3-4 axis controlled gantries to maneuver the fiber placement head with 6 degrees of freedom for laying fibers on complex 2D and 3D shaped molds.

Emerging technologies are also enabling new capabilities in AFP. For example, automated fiber modifying techniques allow cutting and restarting of fiber tows on the fly under machine control for producing draped or tailored blanks. Other developments include integrated vision systems for automatic fiber sensing and positioning, multi-material capabilities for co-depositing fibers along with reinforcements like chopped strands for hybrid composites, and industrial robot arms as an alternative to gantry systems for fiber placement. Such technologies are helping manufacturers build larger and more sophisticated composite structures using AFP.

Automated Tape Laying

While AFP excels at placed narrow fiber tows, automated tape laying or ATL focuses on the continuous placement of wider prepreg tape materials. ATL machines typically lay rolls of pre-impregnated (prepreg) composite tape which contains resin that is only partially cured. The tapes used are usually several inches wide (from 0.5" to 12") compared to much thinner AFP fiber tows. ATL Deposition rates are also very high in the range of 10-30 kg/hour depending on tape width and complexity of the part shape.

ATL machines have a similar gantry style architecture as AFP machines but with modifications to the placement head to accommodate the wider and less flexible tape materials. The tape lays are controlled through a system of pulleys, capstans and tension controllers to achieve precision steering, overlap and consolidation of the tapes onto the substrate. Inline heating systems may be integrated to pre-heat the tapes for enhancing placement quality onto curved surfaces. Advanced ATL machines are capable of bi-directional tape laying where tapes are placed in 0-degree and 90-degree orientations in a single pass to reinforce critical load-bearing areas.

ATL technology has been successfully applied to produce primary composite structures across domains from aerospace, defense and transportation sectors. For example, ATL is used to manufacture wing and fuselage sections of aircrafts. Automakers are increasingly adopting ATL to build carbon fiber reinforced exterior body panels and underbody components for weight savings. Wind turbine blades are also now ATL manufactured using infused prepreg tapes for their high strength-to-weight requirements. With continued development, ATL and its variations will likely drive higher adoption of industrial-scale composites manufacturing globally.

Economics and Energy Benefits of Composite Automation

The rise of composite automation through technologies like AFP and ATL has resulted in compelling production economics and sustainability advantages compared to traditional labor-intensive hand layup methods. Studies have found that AFP and ATL based manufacturing processes can yield up to 50% cost savings over hand layups for large composite parts while improving part quality and repeatability significantly. This is primarily due to the higher deposition rates and nearly 100% material utilization that these automated methods offer compared to manual layups.

Furthermore, automated tape placement does not require large labor force and improves workspace ergonomics. The reduction in human contact with hazardous composite materials also enhances plant safety. In addition, automated processes need smaller factory floorspaces owing to concentrated, streamlined manufacturing cells compared to scattered hand layup operations. All these factors contribute to lower capital investments and operating expenses for automated composite manufacturing facilities.

From an environmental perspective, automated layup methods result in an up to 30% reduction in material scrap rates thereby conserving raw material usage. Since they avoid time-consuming manual labor, automated layups also achieve higher production throughput which translates to economic and energy efficient fabrication cycles. Overall, composite automation using advanced AFP and ATL technologies provides substantial green benefits besides establishing a viable high-volume production model for composites needed to meet renewable energy and sustainability targets worldwide.

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