Tow placement studies for liquid composite moulding

The paper describes an investigation of design and manufacturing techniques for preform manufacture based upon tow placement. A kinematic draping algo rithm was used to devise flat laydown patterns which were deposited in dry fibre using tow placement with a four-axis robot. The equipment was develop ed to lay multiple tows and used to test an "undraping" algorithm for the g eneration of novel architectures. The latter were applied to two simple sha pes in attempts to provide more uniform coverage than conventional fabric-f orming processes. Models to predict the permeability and elastic modulus of laminates produced by tow placement facility were developed which allow fo r fibre waviness and were validated by the deliberate manufacture of prefor ms with sinusoidal fibre paths. Practical applications are illustrated for demonstrator structures from the marine and aircraft industries. (C) 1999 P ublished by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.