D-Cologne: miscellaneous special-purpose machinery

The project addresses, based on the filing of dry carbon fibres, the development of processes for the production of large-scale, three-dimensional and high-integral components from fibre composite materials. To this end, a portal facility will be developed to enable the gradual transformation of composite fibre production into automated robot-based manufacturing. The target is a technology capable of removing at least 100 kg/h dry carbon material. Compared to the current state of the art, this means a tremendous increase in productivity to be achieved by:
1. Increase in filing speed;
2. Integration of quality assurance into manufacturing processes;
3. Ensuring a consistent high quality of filing and thus, among other things, to reduce repairs or scratch;
4. Expansion/extension of previous filing processes, e.g. handling large-scale pruning, which cannot be processed manually in this way;
5. Improving the process flow e.g. through parallel filing;
6. Automation of vacuum build-up or reduction of current effort.
The proportion of fibre composite components in commercial aircraft has gradually increased in recent years and is to be further increased in future aircraft (A350, A30X). In particular, a new A30X short-haul aircraft shows a production rate of about forty aircraft per month. Such processes require more extensive automation of manufacturing processes than they are currently state-of-the-art. Existing manufacturing processes cannot be easily cost-optimally scalable in the case of large volumes. This requires the creation of new processes and process chains to position such materials and structural materials. There are different starting points for automated production of hull structures and subassemblies for hulls made of fibre-composite materials. In particular, in the area of handling and infiltration of large panel elements, new innovative processes will be developed and implemented that promise cost-effective and automated manufacturing.
The installation includes a new generation of end-effectors for depositing cuttings of different dimensions, reels and non-destructive testing (NDT). It also implements online quality assurance procedures and provides for the integration of a tape laying head.

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