IMPROVING THE PRODUCTION QUALITY OF THE ADVANCED AUTOMATED FIBER PLACEMENT PROCESS BY MEANS OF ONLINE PATH CORRECTION

In order to improve the quality of the Automated Fiber Placement Technology (AFP), the integration of an online quality assurance system is essential. Therefore, the German Aerospace Center uses referencing and monitoring sensor systems to increase accuracy and to optimize tolerances. This work describes a fiber edge detection sensor which is mounted on a CNC-controlled robot kinematic and determines the relative position of neighbored material courses in order to allow a correction of the actual path of the Tool Center Point (TCP). An online path correction is carried out for the first time. With this knowledge, the control of gaps is enabled. In addition, the influence of operational vibrations, speed and different motion scenarios on accuracy and repeatability are determined.