초록 ▼

A tape placement method and apparatus for producing laminated articles from composite tape. The tape placement apparatus builds plies of a laminated article by laying courses of composite tape along natural or untensioned paths of a compound contoured surface. The natural paths are determined by a p

A tape placement method and apparatus for producing laminated articles from composite tape. The tape placement apparatus builds plies of a laminated article by laying courses of composite tape along natural or untensioned paths of a compound contoured surface. The natural paths are determined by a path generation routine which incrementally fits an untensioned path to a compound curved surface and outputs the data as a desired path for a tape course. The natural paths are generated as nonmachine specific geometric data which are translated into a machine instructions which cause controlled motions of the tape laying head of the tape placement apparatus. The translation into machine instructions includes an alignment process whereby variations in the orientation of the contoured surface can be corrected. The machine instructions are transmitted as desired positions to a adaptive controller which positions a tape laying head of the placement apparatus based on the difference between the desired positions and the actual positions of the tape head.

대표청구항 ▼

A multi-axis tape laying machine for depositing composite tape in selected generally parallel courses upon a mandrel having a complex contoured surface to form thereon a conforming ply and for laying succeeding plies in like manner upon said first-mentioned ply to build a laminated structure upon sa

A multi-axis tape laying machine for depositing composite tape in selected generally parallel courses upon a mandrel having a complex contoured surface to form thereon a conforming ply and for laying succeeding plies in like manner upon said first-mentioned ply to build a laminated structure upon said mandrel, said tape laying machine comprising: a tape laying head movable in a plurality of axes under controlled power applied in accordance with control signals; a control processor for receiving machine instructions and for generating said control signals in accordance with said machine instructions; and means for generating said machine instructions defining the natural path of each selected tape course on the surface of said mandrel from a representation of said surface, an incremental step distance of movement along said natural path, and the width of said tape.