TY - JOUR

T1 - Multi-orbital placement of towpregs on cylindrical foam cores in continuous CFRP rod production

AU - Denkena, Berend

AU - Schmidt, Carsten

AU - Bogenschütz, Marco

AU - Schütze, Martin

N1 - Funding Information: The authors thankfully acknowledge the financial and organizational support of the project TowPregRod (20Q1928B) by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).

PY - 2024/4/2

Y1 - 2024/4/2

N2 - Established manufacturing processes for CFRP hollow sections, such as pultrusion or similar wet impregnation processes techniques are already in place [1]. Due to the cost-intensive tools and process technology, such systems are usually designed for large quantities only [2]. Consequently, Schütze GmbH & Co. KG has developed a tool-free manufacturing process for producing customer specific, unidirectionally stiffened CFRP sandwich rods primarily designed for the aerospace industry. In collaboration with the Institute for Production Engineering and Machine Tools (IFW) at Leibniz Universität Hannover, they are conducting research aimed at advancing the manufacturing process. Instead of impregnation dry fiber rovings in the process, pre-impregnated fiber rovings, so-called towpregs, are to be used. While towpregs provide a significant cost advantage compared to standard prepreg tapes, they are at the mercy of a higher dimensional variance due to the manufacturing process [3]. Furthermore, the IFW in particular is developing and researching an additional process step to reinforce the sandwich rods with angular layers in the circumferential direction of the rod. This paper shows how the mathematical relationships in a continuous winding process translate to equipment technology and how the theoretical product range of the technology is determined. By flexibly stiffening the rods with circumferential layers, the range of applications for CFRP sandwich rods can be significantly expanded and the use of pre-impregnated towpreg materials makes them affordable and more resource-efficient. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of the ACM6.

AB - Established manufacturing processes for CFRP hollow sections, such as pultrusion or similar wet impregnation processes techniques are already in place [1]. Due to the cost-intensive tools and process technology, such systems are usually designed for large quantities only [2]. Consequently, Schütze GmbH & Co. KG has developed a tool-free manufacturing process for producing customer specific, unidirectionally stiffened CFRP sandwich rods primarily designed for the aerospace industry. In collaboration with the Institute for Production Engineering and Machine Tools (IFW) at Leibniz Universität Hannover, they are conducting research aimed at advancing the manufacturing process. Instead of impregnation dry fiber rovings in the process, pre-impregnated fiber rovings, so-called towpregs, are to be used. While towpregs provide a significant cost advantage compared to standard prepreg tapes, they are at the mercy of a higher dimensional variance due to the manufacturing process [3]. Furthermore, the IFW in particular is developing and researching an additional process step to reinforce the sandwich rods with angular layers in the circumferential direction of the rod. This paper shows how the mathematical relationships in a continuous winding process translate to equipment technology and how the theoretical product range of the technology is determined. By flexibly stiffening the rods with circumferential layers, the range of applications for CFRP sandwich rods can be significantly expanded and the use of pre-impregnated towpreg materials makes them affordable and more resource-efficient. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of the ACM6.

KW - CFRP

KW - Orbital lay-up

KW - Rod

KW - Sandwich

KW - Towpreg

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85189860854&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.mfglet.2024.03.018

DO - 10.1016/j.mfglet.2024.03.018

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85189860854

VL - 40

SP - 118

EP - 120

JO - Manufacturing Letters

JF - Manufacturing Letters

SN - 2213-8463

ER -