Dynamic heater control for automated fiber placement machines

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10974466-B2
Application number	US-201916287917-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 27, 2019
Priority date	Sep 8, 2016
Publication date	Apr 13, 2021
Grant date	Apr 13, 2021

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for dynamically managing heater position for an Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) machine. One embodiment is a method that includes retrieving distance data indicating predicted distances of a heating surface of a heater of the AFP machine to a surface of a laminate being laid-up by the AFP machine, for each of multiple locations along a path. The method also includes directing the AFP machine to lay up the laminate in accordance with a Numerical Control (NC) program, identifying a current location of the heater in the path, determining a speed at which the heater of the AFP machine is moving, correlating the current location of the heater with a predicted distance, and adjusting an amount of power for the heater at the current location based on the predicted distance that was correlated with the current location, and the speed at the current location.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
an Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) machine that lays up a laminate, the AFP machine comprising:
a head comprising:
a guide that dispenses tows of constituent material onto the laminate; and
a heater that heats the laminate prior to the tows being dispensed onto the laminate; and

a controller that is configured to retrieve distance data indicating predicted distances of a heating surface of the heater to a surface of the laminate for each of multiple locations along a path that the heating surface will travel over the laminate surface during layup, direct the AFP machine to lay up the laminate in accordance with a Numerical Control (NC) program, identify a current location of the heater in the path during layup, determine a speed at which the heater of the AFP machine is moving at the current location, correlate the current location of the heater with one of the predicted distances, and adjust an amount of power for the heater during layup at the current location based on the predicted distance that was correlated with the current location, and the speed at the current location.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising:
a part design unit comprising:
a memory; and
a processor that generates the NC program for directing the AFP machine, determines the path that the heating surface will travel over the laminate surface, predicts distances of the heating surface to the laminate surface for each of the multiple locations along the path, and stores the predicted distances in memory as the distance data.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein:
the controller is configured to identify an average distance of the heating surface to the laminate surface at the location, and select the amount of power based on the average distance.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein:
the controller is configured to identify a minimum distance of the heating surface to the laminate surface at the location, and select the amount of power based on the minimum distance.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein:
the controller is configured to adjust the amount of power to provide a predetermined amount of heat to the laminate surface, regardless of distance between the heating surface and the laminate surface.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein:
the controller is configured to adjust the amount of power to heat the laminate surface to a predetermined temperature, regardless of distance between the heating surface and the laminate surface.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein:
the AFP machine further comprises a compaction roller that compacts tows onto the laminate.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein:
the heater comprises electrically resistive filaments that generate infrared radiation in response to applied current.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein:
the heater comprises a heating surface via which heat is radiated.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein:
the controller-is configured to access a heating profile that includes predefined values for the amount of power, based on distance and speed.

11. A system comprising:
an AFP machine comprising:
a head comprising:
a guide that dispenses tows of constituent material onto a laminate;
a heater that heats a surface of the laminate prior to the tows being dispensed onto the laminate; and
at least one sensor that provides distance data; and

a controller that is configured to direct the AFP machine to lay up the laminate in accordance with a Numerical Control (NC) program, determine a speed at which the heater of the AFP machine is moving during layup, determine a distance of the heating surface to the laminate surface at a location based on the distance data from the at least one sensor, and adjust an amount of power for the heater based on the distance and the speed at the location.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein:
the controller is configured to identify an average distance of the heating surface to the laminate surface at the location, based on the distance data, and select the amount of power based on the average distance.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein:
the controller is configured to identify a minimum distance of the heating surface to the laminate surface at the location, based on the distance data, and select the amount of power based on the minimum distance.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein:
the controller is configured to adjust the amount of power to heat the laminate surface to a predetermined temperature, regardless of distance between the heating surface and the laminate surface.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein:
the controller is configured to adjust the amount of power to heat the laminate surface to a predetermined temperature, regardless of distance between the heating surface and the laminate surface.

16. The system of claim 11 further comprising:
a compaction roller that compacts tows onto the laminate.

17. The system of claim 11 wherein:
the heater comprises electrically resistive filaments that generate infrared radiation in response to applied current.

18. The system of claim 11 wherein:
the heater comprises a heating surface via which heat is radiated.

19. The system of claim 11 wherein:
the controller is configured to limit the amount of power applied by the heater, based on a minimum shortest path distance between a heating surface of the heater and the laminate.

20. The system of claim 11 wherein:
the controller-is configured to access a heating profile that includes predefined values for the amount of power, based on distance and speed.

Assignees

• Boeing Co

Inventors

• Moore Jeron D
• Johnson Brice A
• Pedigo Samuel F
• Ghose Sayata

Classifications

• B29C70/384 Primary

  Fiber placement heads, e.g. component parts, details or accessories · CPC title

• B29C70/382 Primary

  Automated fiber placement [AFP] · CPC title

• H05B2203/032

  Heaters specially adapted for heating by radiation heating · CPC title

• H05B1/02

  Automatic switching arrangements specially adapted to apparatus {; Control of heating devices} (thermally-actuated switches H01H37/00) · CPC title

• G05B19/18

  Numerical control [NC], i.e. automatically operating machines, in particular machine tools, e.g. in a manufacturing environment, so as to execute positioning, movement or co-ordinated operations by means of program data in numerical form (G05B19/418 takes precedence) · CPC title