Laser guided Prepreg Layups 1

[SAParker]

The company I work is looking to invest in a laser projection system for prepreg layups. We manufacture composite parts for aircraft interiors. Does anyone have any recommendations or experience in these systems and how much they would cost?

 

[ewh]

I'm not sure of the cost, but we use Virtek for ply layups.

 

[CompositeGeek]

Used them for structural parts where the laminate was complex with many small pieces that had critical placement for orientation and location.

We also used them when a ply locating template (PLT) was not advisable due to size/complexity/ and handling limitations.

They were very expensive (need to eliminate a large number of PLTs to justify the already sunk cost versus time savings etc.

Our operators thought they were cool at first until they realized the tool had to lock down to floor for consistant imaging. This may be an issue that has since been overcome - It was years ago for me.

Bottom line - While cool from a techno geek standpoint they did not seem to be "That Much" better than good ole PLTS. for parts up to the size of say an interior wall panel.

Last note: You have me curious - are the plies in your interiaor components that complex? Seems to me most Brand B interiors were one - two full plies some kinda core and more full skin plies. Very few "located plies were used. Not sure of your application. I am referring to the major interior pieces, walls, bins, seems as I recall that floor panels got fancier than that.

Good Luck!

Composites and Airplanes - what was I thinking?

There are gremlins in the autoclave!

 

[SAParker]

We make mainly aircraft seats and various seat components which can have very complex shapes and plies. Our longest lay up instruction (just for prepreg placement) is close to 100 pages. The size of these templates are not an issue it is just the large number and often the customer requires new templates to be made and old ones scrapped. We would like to produce the templates at a quicker rate.

 

[CompositeGeek]

Okay, Seats then: Oy, I envy you not, your volumes must be fun!

I am not sure how much those systems cost anymore. When I did this they were very spendy. Probably a lot cheaper now.

I do also recall that we had to think through carefully where we put them in the shop for part flow, lighting etc.

Once they were set it was a pain to move them and the projector to the lay up mold relationship was an important consideration.

Since the systems I played with were in their infacy then I would suggest getting as much freedom in that arena you can from the System Manufacturer. It caused us no end of grief.

Our application was Nacelle fixed and door panels that had a lot of very busy features, we were limited to the number of stations where we could use the laser projector. Our factory had multiple lay up rooms and our executives liked to shuffle things around which meant we broke down the original set up and moved it three or four times. It would take us the better part of a week to reset the system in its new location. (Again this is ancient history)

Changes to the actual projected ply locating lines did go pretty quick when we needed them.

Have bunches of fun!





Composites and Airplanes - what was I thinking?

There are gremlins in the autoclave!

 

[ewh]

The Virtek system that we use has 4 laser heads mounted from above, and 4 removable calibration pins on the mold. It is a simple matter to re-calibrate the system if the mold shifts position. We are limited to only one location to use the system, so the work has to flow through it as opposed to moving it to different work stations. I suppose it could be mounted on a gantry type of movable frame, which would help to alleviate this problem.

 

[PanelGuy]

If I rememebr correct a easy Virtek system is around $15,000. Then there is programming and a PC etc. My guess is that you can justify a very robust system just on your ECO costs alone. Look at every thing saved, rejects, time to change docs, time to generate docs etc.