Design and tension control of filament winding system

Currently a variety of fiber materials are used extensively in various fields. Carbon fiber (CF), carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) and their products are especially popular because they have higher tensile strength than metals. CFRP are generally formed by a filament-winding (FW) method. The winding pitch and tension controls of this process are key factors in making sound products. The purpose of this research is to establish an advanced filament-winding system with real-time control of the winding tension. We first describe building a filament-winding machine that can measure and control the winding tension. Second, we propose two kinds of winding tension control methods, and implement them using PID or I-PD control. Our proposed tension control methods, which make use of the rotational velocity difference between the mandrel and nip-roll parts, performed well in trials. Finally, we performed a ring burst test to check the effectiveness of tension control as it relates to product strength.