Automatic Tape-Laying Simulation On Cylinder Composite Structures With Opening

Automated Tape Laying (ATL) is a new composite manufacture technology with low cost material. It can be used to manufacture large size products with small curvature e.g. plane wings and stave sheets etc. Because of low manufacture cost and high efficiency, the ATL technology is widely applied into aerospace fields in developed countries. But in China, the research on ATL just commences underway.Automated Tape Laying simulation, as one of the most important tape laying technologies, includes advanced composite numerical manufacturing technology, numerical control theory of machine tool, CAD/CAM technology, computer simulation technology and so on. Automated Tape Laying simulation on processing cylinder structure with opening is studied in this paper.(1) On the cylinder mould with opening, the track programming of fiber placement and cutting knife is generated on its developable surface and furthermore feature points used for tape laying are obtained. The way done on its developable surface simplifies the opening and is adaptable to ATL simulation.(2) The two ultrasonic knifes cutting system is used to cut prepreg tape, and how to deal with the cutting on the mould boundary and opening area, such as the selection of knives, the pressing points and the track programming of cutting knives is considered.(3) The whole performance of the composite structure with opening is reduced compared with the composite structure without opening and the asymmetric submerged reinforcement of circular layer is considered to the opening area.(4) The principal axis-dolly automated tape laying system is first selected and the NC code generated for such system is studied.(5) Automatic tape-laying simulation software is programmed based on Windows XP, VC++6.0 and OpenGL technology, which achieves 3D dynamic simulation in the tape-laying process of cylinder structure.