Aerospace Manufacturing hears how FARO’s laser templating technology supports the composites industry to streamline assembly and increase production throughput.

 

Manufacturers that use composites to build their products or parts probably have as one of their primary goals to minimise the size and weight and maximise the strength of what they are producing. One important key factor they need to consider is the timely and accurate location and positioning of composite plies.

When composites were introduced, their unique properties had significant effects on reducing the size, weight and power aspects of major components. Unfortunately, the labour-intensive nature of composites lay-up production certainly did not reduce the manufacturing costs, however FARO’s Laser Projection technology is helping to change that.

This technology finds specific applications in the field of composite materials, allowing companies to shorten production cycles, reduce scrap/rework and increase overall productivity.

One of the key applications is related to the lay-up of composite laminates onto a tool for a build-up manufacturing process. Manufacturers look for ways to locate and place plies as quickly and accurately as possible in order to streamline the layup process.

Some companies use templates or Mylars to attempt to expedite the layup process and ensure location accuracy. They need to measure, cut and build the templates (Mylar, hard tooling, paper) and then operators must pull and place the templates properly for each ply of each job or part. Often, hand measurement and human intervention are required to properly place these templates, while most composites layups involve multiple plies.

A vision of precision

Using outdated tools, such as tape measures, makes the layup process slow, and sometimes inaccurate. Even the use of physical or Mylar templates to attempt to accelerate the process can be difficult as it involves pulling the proper template, aligning and placing it, affixing it and then maintaining that position during the actual layup process: Templates show operators where to place plies, but templates need to be placed correctly prior to placement of the plies which is time-consuming, and labour intensive. Templates and hard tooling also create a significant expense when it comes to building, storing and maintaining them.

In addition, the ability to make engineering changes on-the-fly has opened tremendous opportunities for advancements in engineering design and application; however, physical templates can therefore also quickly become obsolete, not only when new parts are created, but when engineering change orders (ECOs) are introduced: engineering change often necessitates a new template. And when developing and launching a new product, the number of ECOs can be quite extensive.

The FARO TracerM Laser Projector allows manufacturers to handle all these challenges in an effective way by reducing layout times, speeds ply placement, shortens production cycles improving productivity, and reduces down-time and scrap/rework during layup.

The FARO TracerM projects a template of laser light onto the composite tool, outlining the exact location and orientation of the composite ply materials, and does so in the proper sequence, according to the job’s CAD based ply (layer) schedule. The use of these virtual templates dramatically improves cycle time for very complex layups that take dozens to hundreds of plies. Furthermore, eliminating the time it takes to build physical templates is crucial to reducing manufacturing costs and time to market.

Using Laser Projection also greatly reduces the pain points of the ECO process, allowing rapid incorporation of changes (days versus weeks or months): When the CAD model is changed, Laser Projection changes are uploaded to the computer that controls the projector and the changes are immediately implemented on the next production unit.

Learning with lasers

Last, but not least, with computer and laser-guided assembly, the possibility of having defects during the layup process is greatly reduced because laser-guided assembly solutions such as the FARO TracerM ensure the highest production quality level, regardless of the experience and the skills of the personnel in the various shifts.

Laser Projection Technology also provides valuable assistance for Automated Fibre Placement (AFP) machines. Laser projection technology is a fast method of verifying ply orientation. By adopting a laser projector solution, fibre angles can be visually verified during the projection process: The FARO TracerM Laser Projector projects the desired line (fibre angle line) and an operator visually checks using the projected line as a guide and a protractor.

Laser projection also allows the hand layup of ply’s less than the AFP’s minimum course length. This way, Laser Projection Technology reduces time and labour to check fibre angles: No physical tools (other than a protractor) are required to check fibre angle and fibre angle verification is independent of the AFP machine (Independent Verification).

The FARO TracerM Laser Projector accurately projects a 0.5mm wide laser line onto a 2D/3D surface or object to provide a virtual template that enables operators and assemblers to quickly and accurately position components with absolute confidence.

The clearly-defined laser template is created with the use of a 3D CAD model, enabling the system to visually project a detailed laser outline of parts, artefacts, or areas of interest.

The result is a virtual and collaborative 3D template able to streamline a wide range of assembly and production applications, allowing companies to improve productivity and quality.

The ability to guide a process sequence, along with accurately locating and orienting components, increases manufacturing efficiencies. Costly non-conformances are eliminated by implementing a simple, reliable, repeatable and cost-effective solution to streamline production processes.

The FARO TracerM not only reduces the use of expensive physical templates and hard tooling, but also reduces or eliminates scrap and rework. For large assemblies and/or in space-constrained areas, multiple TracerM projectors can be controlled from a single workstation to provide large-scale virtual templates in one coordinate system.

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