Research On Integrated CAD/CAE/CAM System For Automated Tow Placement

Automated tow placement is an advanced manufacturing technology for composites. It is the application of modern robotics, computer numerical control and CAD/CAE/CAM to composite manufacturing. Automated tow placement is supported by advanced placement equipment and its numerical control system, special CAD/CAE/CAM system. In this thesis, the production and optimization of fiber placement paths are studied, which builds the base of the control for automated tow placements.After analyzing the function requirement of CAD/CAE/CAM for fiber placement ,and interface for further developing of existing CAD/CAE/CAM software, Further developing UG is selected as developing strategy for realizing CAD /CAM functions for fiber placement, and ANSYS is selected for realizing the CAE function for fiber placement.Effects made by stacking-sequence and fiber orientation angle on stress concentration around holes for tensile open-hole composite plate is studied. A new idea, general layup of composite laminates is comprised of simply-steered plies and fully-steered plies,is presented. Illustrated by a tensile composite plate with an open hole and a pin-loaded hole, fiber placement path planning of the fully-steered ply is studied.The optimization of fiber placement paths for composite plate-parts is studied, two kinds of algorithm are brought out to meet different requirements of base-line-path. The optimization of fiber placement paths for composite around-parts is studied, and a triangle algorithm is presented which is easy to implement and can be used for the path generation of free form surface-parts. Tow width control and shaping error control are also studied.