create and experiment with various afp path op6ons to...
TRANSCRIPT
Create and experiment with various AFP path op6ons to evaluate how AFP lay-‐up affects a composite part’s design intent
VERICUT Composite Paths for Engineering (VCPe) gives a composite part designer, mechanical engineer, or process engineer access to the same soHware tools NC programmers use to create Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) NC program paths that are subsequently used in the workshop to lay-‐up a composite part. Using these tools, the part designer or engineer can easily create and experiment with various AFP path op6ons and evaluate how AFP lay-‐up affects a composite part’s design intent.
By crea6ng actual AFP lay-‐up courses that could be used to program AFP fabrica6on equipment in the workshop, the user can measure and evaluate the effects of AFP path trajectory, material steering, surface curvature, course convergence and other process constraints as they would be applied in manufacturing, confirming the design is producible.
Introduc6on With AFP, several itera0ons are o3en required between part programming and part design. To be producible, a design must allow for the surface curvature’s effect on material steering limits and the ability to achieve desired fiber direc0ons and overlap/gap allowance. A reasonable predic0on of actual manufacturing results can be achieved by crea0ng AFP paths and analyzing how they actually lay on tool surfaces, and subsequently feeding that informa0on back into the part design process. Tradi0onally this informa0on is not available un0l NC programming creates the actual NC program for the AFP lay-‐up machine. When a problem is discovered at this late stage, and the design must be modified as a result, significant delays can occur. VERICUT Composite Paths for Engineering VERICUT Composite Paths for Engineering (VCPe) gives a composite part designer, mechanical engineer or process engineer access to the same so3ware tools NC programmers use to create AFP NC program paths that are subsequently used in the workshop to lay-‐up a composite part. Using these tools the part designer or engineer can easily create and experiment with various AFP path op0ons and evaluate how AFP lay-‐up affects a composite part’s design intent. By producing actual AFP lay-‐up courses that can be used to program AFP fabrica0on equipment in the workshop, the user can measure and evaluate the effects of AFP path trajectory, material steering, surface curvature, course convergence and other process constraints as they would be applied in manufacturing. Simulated fiber path geometry can be wriUen to various CAD formats for further evalua0on by the user’s exis0ng analysis methods and tools. VCPe provides producibil0y analysis for:
• Fiber angle • Course overlap and gap • Material conformance to curved surfaces • Material steering
VCPe is a subset of standard VERICUT Composite Programming (VCP) features. Just like VCP, VCPe reads CAD surfaces and ply boundary informa0on and adds material to fill the plies according to user-‐specified requirements. A variety of path trajectory strategies can be used to fill plies. These paths can then be validated for producibility. A user can quickly experiment with various lay-‐up approaches in order to meet the fiber direc0on requirements while staying within other manufacturing limits. An interface to Vistagy’s Fibersim composite design suite of products is included. Interfaces for other CAD formats including CATIA, NX and STEP are available.
www.JECcomposites.com
Bill Hasenjaeger Product Marke0ng Manager CGTech, USA [email protected]
Crea6ng AFP Paths VCPe reads CAD surfaces and ply boundary informa0on and adds material to fill the plies according to user-‐specified manufacturing standards and requirements. Lay-‐up paths are then linked together to form specific lay-‐up sequences. Overview of VERICUT’s AFP Path Crea0on Process: 1. Read the layup surface model from CATIA V5, NX, STEP, or ACIS
• Other model formats available upon request. 2. Read ply geometry and informa0on from FiberSIM, CATIA or other geometry formats
• Boundary geometry • Ply direc0on • Start points
3. Experiment with various layup path stategies. There are several factors that affect the kind of path trajectories that can be laid on a given surface:
• Tool surface curvature – surface curvature determines the steering required to maintain the desired ply direc0on.
• Material steering limits – the extent composite material can deform over curved areas. Steering limit affects the ability to meet the desired ply direc0on.
• Ply direc0on tolerance – material must lay in a certain direc0on, but its ability to meet the exact direc0on is affected by tool surface curvature and material steering limits.
• Course widths – when laying material over highly curved areas, the course width must be narrower because of the roller’s ability to compact the material. The course width affects where gaps and overlaps occur.
• Overlap/gap allowance – gaps and overlap are created where the tows get dropped as courses converge together. Course width, direc0on tolerance and steering can be adjusted to affect overlap/gap placement.
Path trajectory methods:
• RoseUe: lay material at a desired angle rela0ve to a specified roseUe axis system.
• Natural: an un-‐steered path; either edge of the tow are the same length as it proceeds across the curved surface.
• Parallel: each course is parallel to the previous one, and depending on the curvature of the surface, parallel paths induce steering, and they may deviate from the desired ply angle, but they won’t have laps or gaps.
• Limited Steering: the course trajectory is varies between the material’s steering limit and desired roseUe direc0on.
• Limited Parallel: a varia0on of parallel trajectory, where the courses are parallel as much as possible un0l the direc0on deviates too greatly from the desired ply direc0on.
• Guide Curves: precisely control the path direc0on by laying courses parallel to one or more guide curves.
4. Add thickness for the current ply or sequence, for subsequent layup sequences
• Even on rela0vely flat layup surfaces, added material for pad-‐ups or the addi0on of core material can create challenging surface curvature for path crea0on.
5. Link paths to create lay-‐up sequences
• Automa0cally and/or manually link paths based on shortest distance and the form’s topology.
• Evaluate how the layup strategy may affect ply crea0on. 6. Export the as-‐laid material geometry for further analysis in exis0ng engineering systems.
Introduc6on to CGTech Composites Applica6ons for Manufacturing In addi0on to VCPe, CGTech’s applica0ons to support the composite fabrica0on workshop include VERICUT Composite Programming (VCP) and VERICUT Composite Simula0on (VCS). Together these so3ware programs comprise a suite of applica0ons that operate independently of specific CAD systems and CNC machinery. This independence allows a composite manufacturer to select the best equipment for specific projects, and support them all from one single NC programming applica0on. VCP contains all the path features of VCPe, plus the tools to create NC programs for any CNC-‐controlled AFP equipment. VCS simulates the complete layup sequence on a virtual machine using the actual NC programs that will run in the workshop. Simulated material is applied to the lay-‐up form via NC program instruc0ons in a virtual CNC simula0on environment. The simulated material can be measured and inspected to ensure the NC program meets requirements and produces the desired workpiece. In addi0on to visual and automated queues, a report showing simula0on results and sta0s0cal informa0on is automa0cally created. Fiber Placement Machine Simula0on details:
• Based on industry leading VERICUT So3ware • User-‐configurable machine kinema0cs and control emula0on models • Reads and simulates ISO (G-‐Code) NC program file
VCPe detects poten-al AFP problems such as undesirable gaps & ply angle devia-ons
VERICUT Composite SoBware overview. VCPe is a subset of standard VERICUT Composite Programming (VCP) features.