This technology saves time and labour for composite parts manufacturing in the automotive, aerospace, sports and other market sectors. The technology aims at increasing the quality of carbon fiber composite parts manufactured out-of-autoclave while reducing cycle time and costs, particularly for 3 dimensional parts with complex geometries.
Details: Dr. Francois Robitaille from the department of Mechanical Engineering has developed a unique capability for manufacturing thick net-shape continuous-fibre textile preforms from carbon yarn. This includes CAD software for preform design, and preform manufacturing equipment. The system enables his team to build drapability and shape into thick preform fabrics, allowing them to bend and drape over complex moulds, thereby reducing labour intensive activities such as trimming, taping, layering fabric. The approach expands on existing stitching-based technologies, allowing a user to tailor preforms to specific parts and loading cases.
Benefits:• Unique preforms designed for specific parts and load cases• Cost reductions through 10+ decreases in labour laying down fabric• Throughput increased as preforms manufacturing steps are greatly reduced• Reproducibility increased as manual preforming operations are removed• Enables design and construction of new shapes with improved capabilities• Easy to use and implement as tooling and techniques are familiar to industry • Scales to large sizes