Robotic die-less forming strategy for fiber-reinforced plastic composites production

Fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP) production in many cases involves expensive molds, which especially hinders cost-effective production of small series and prototypes. In metal parts production, incremental sheet forming (ISF) is an established process for creating individual parts and small series through a flexible and die-less process. Establishing a similar process for FRP is desirable but challenging, as deformation mechanisms of endless FRP differ significantly from metal sheets. Using just two movable standard tools, bending and shear of woven fabric needs to be realized. Thus, determining feasible forming paths of the robot guided tools for the desired geometries is one of the biggest challenges. In this paper, we propose a forming strategy for highly automated and flexible die-less FRP production based upon the theoretical background of draping mechanisms. We investigate the strategy in a basic experimental setup, generating a hemisphere and tetrahedron.

Subjects

Fiber-reinforced plastic

composite materials

Die-less forming

Free-forming

Robotic forming

Draping

DDC Class

600: Technik

620: Ingenieurwissenschaften

Funding(s)

Entwicklung eines Prozesses zur inkrementellen, formwerkzeuglosen Umformung faserverstärkter Halbzeuge, sowie Umsetzung einer digitalen Prozesskette zur Planung- und Steuerung

Funding Organisations

Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz (BMWK)

More Funding Information

Research was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economics and Climate Action under the Program LuFo VI-1 iFish with project partners CompriseTec GmbH and carat robotic innovation GmbH.

Publication version

publishedVersion

Lizenz

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Name

1-s2.0-S2212827122004292-main.pdf

Size

2.88 MB

Format

Adobe PDF

Options

Robotic die-less forming strategy for fiber-reinforced plastic composites production