Integration of new manufacturing technologies into future structures for helicopters and airplanes could be the key for sustained competitiveness. However, the investments which have to be made are high and there is an involved risk due to technology readiness and novelty of such processes. Additionally, todays and future programs require a shortened development and industrialisation phase. Furthermore, projects are getting more and more decentralized increasing the need for managing process changes and improvements in an efficient way. This scenario requires a detailed understanding of the processes to speed up feasibility study, to reduce prototype costs and to fulfil first-time-right requirements. Thus, Manufacturing Process Simulation can be used as strong tool to master processes and to speed up development and industrialisation. The paper gives an overview of the currently available and used manufacturing process simulation tools and indicates their applicability in development projects and during the industrialisation, ramp-up and serial production phases. Two actual cases are described more in detail: a) Preforming of Non-Crimp-Fabric for Liquid Composites Moulding (LCM) b) Heating and curing modelling of a RTM part. Both cases will be presented through real applications for aeronautical parts out of composite materials. The different features will be explained in order to focus on industrial end-users needs. The paper will highlight how MPS can serve as baseline for future online process follow-up or inspection tools. Each step of the manufacturing process has its own specificities and parameters related to specific physical behaviours. The forming of reinforcement is a step dominated by its mechanics. The associated MPS will give results about the feasibility and the definition parameter of the process. The infusion is flow-dominated. MPS will help validating the tooling strategy as well as the choice of the resin. Temperature repartition in closed space is CFD-dominated whose simulation will give the best positions for the sensors and of the best arrangement of parts in the oven or autoclave. The curing simulation is a thermo-mechanical calculation governed by the cure kinetics of the resin. The associated MPS allow to define the heating cycle to be applied and the consquences of an interrupted cycle. Those simulation modules are chronologically coupled and create a chain of MPS. They are all to be covered in order to reach a complete understanding of the manufacturing chain and ensure the right Production Engineering. An identification work has been started by Eurocopter in order to ensure a correct usage of MPS at all steps of the processes. A highlight concerning a new promising technology is given bellow. A broad use of MPS still faces blocking points. For example the physical properties used for the MPS are not included till now in the classical data sheets defining the materials i.e. the mechanical behaviour of a reinforcement and its drapability, the permeability of a preform according to the layer stacking and shearing of each layer, the resin kinematics modelisation according to temperature and time, the thermal conductivity according to the curing ratio etc.
Manufacturing process simulation tools for faster industrialisation of composite parts
Programmwerkzeuge für die Fertigungsprozesssimulation zum Zweck einer schnelleren industriellen Fertigung von Verbundwerkstoffbauteilen
2009
8 Seiten, 5 Bilder, 4 Quellen
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Datenträger
Englisch
Fertigungssimulation , Programmwerkzeug , Bauteil (mechanisch) , Verbundwerkstoff , industrielle Anwendung , Zeiteinsparung , Formgebung , Verstärkungsgewebe , Vorform , Harzinjektionsverfahren , Erwärmen , Aushärten (Polymer) , Luftfahrttechnik , Anwendungsgebiet , Imprägnierung , Simulationsverfahren , Hubschrauber
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