EVALUATING THE DRAPING QUALITY OF MECHANICAL PREFORMED CARBON FIBRE TEXTILES FOR DOUBLE CURVED GEOMETRIES

Manufacturing of large carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) structures needs to be automated to fulfil the rising amount of aircrafts ordered worldwide. The main aspect of using CFRP structures is the low weight associated with high mechanical properties. To achieve these properties the fibre orientation is mandatory. Nevertheless, the complex part of preforming large structures is commonly done by hand due to the difficulty in handling the fragile fabrics. The approach at the DLR to automate this process is the usage of robotically controlled kinematic endeffectors. To make this process attractive for manufacturers the quality of the draped cut pieces needs to meet the requirements specified by the design engineers. In this paper a dry carbon fibre cut piece was draped by a kinematic endeffector. The draping simulation parameters were adjusted from the manual manufacturing to the draping process by the endeffector. The draped cut pieces were then measured regarding the placement position via laser scanner and resulting fibre angles by an optical measurement system. Concluding the measured values where compared to the results of the simulation.