Authors
Ramy Harik, Joshua Halbritter, Dawn Jegley, Ray Grenoble, Brian Mason
Conference
SAMPE Conference & Exhibition. Charlotte, North Carolina, US.
Abstract
The ability to accurately manufacture large complex shapes in a consistent and repeatable manner has led to Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) being the predominant mode of manufacturing for large composite aerospace structures today. Currently, AFP is being considered for medium- and small-scale parts. Composite wind tunnel blades have traditionally been fabricated by hand layup
for pre-impregnated or dry fabrics with resin infusion. Though well proven, the traditional fabrication method is laborious and tedious, and hence expensive. The project described in this paper used the Integral Structural Assembly of Advanced Composites (ISAAC) facility at the NASA Langley Research Center to build a manufacturing demonstration unit (MDU) with a shape representative of a wind tunnel blade. This MDU is used to discuss tooling, process planning, and fabrication. Additionally, details of the generic manufacturing workflow are presented.
Citation
RRamy Harik, Joshua Halbritter, Dawn Jegley, Ray Grenoble, & Brian Mason. (May 2019). Automated Fiber Placement of Composite Wind Tunnel Blades: Process Planning and Manufacturing. SAMPE Conference & Exhibition. Charlotte, North Carolina, US. doi:https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20200002662
Link: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20200002662
Documents