A CONTRIBUTION ON TP AFP IN SITU CONSOLIDATION PROCESSING AND THE OPPORTUNITY TO PRODUCE HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPOSITES IN AN ADDITIVE MANNER

摘要

Thermoplastic Fibre Placement with in situ consolidation (AFPisc) is the focused process of this contribution. Compared to established composites processing routes, TP AFPisc concentrates on an additive "one box" approach and can fulfil requirements of ecologic friendly, energy efficient and high automated and digitalized future production. A short wrap up of the last six years of research activities on the AFP-isc process at Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM) is presented and ends in a technology transfer to a 3D demonstration carried out in Clean Sky II project INSCAPE. Promoted by Airbus DS SAU as part of Airframe ITD, the main objective of this project was the enhancement of the automated thermoplastic fibre placement process with in situ consolidation (TP AFPisc) focused in high performance polymers such as PEEK or PEKK. Latest development of the project consortium was demonstrated on a curved stiffened panel with direct integrated stiffeners. An overview of the processing equipment and settings as well as manufacturing strategy will be presented. The interaction of tape and laminate quality will be discussed. These results show the current state of a future composite manufacturing process for carbon fibre reinforced aerospace structures and gives an outlook to further required developments for economic exploitation.