SBIR-STTR Award

Assembly Guidance will develop and operate a proof-of-concept Composite Manufacturing Process Control System for hand laid composite parts. The functional elements of this system are: An Assembly Guidance LASERGUIDE projection system which references tooling and projects correct sequence, location and orientation of plies of composite material directly onto the parts as they are being built. The data for this information will be delivered in electronic form directly form the CAD system of Dow-UT Composite Products, Inc. An Acuity Imaging IMAGE ANALYST POWERVISION 90 vision system will be integrated with the laser projection system. The vision system will provide in-process monitoring and documentation of correct sequence, location and orientation of the plies of composite material. The vision system will reference the same electronic data used by the laser projection system. The integrated projection and vision systems will be operated in a production environment utilizing the facilities, personnel, tooling materials, and datasets of Dow-UT Composite Products, Inc.. The process of using this new system will be documented, evaluated and refined.

Keywords:
Composites Composites Composites Dimensions Dimensions Dimensions Hand Layup Hand Layup Hand Layup

AGS will produce, install and refine production prototypes of a Composite Manufacturing Process Control System (CMPCS) in production applications at Dow-United Technologies Composite Products, Inc. for use on hand laid and RTM (F-22) parts, lowering the costs of composite parts by eliminating process steps, labor and tooling required for fabrication and in-process quality monitoring. The product is an integrated vision and laser projection system developed to the proof-of-concept level and successfully demonstrated with SBIR I funding and contributions from AGS and Dow-UT, automatically relating fabrication and quality monitoring directly to CAD for the part being built. The product eliminates template creation, storage, operation, errors, maintenance, and modification (and all associated labor) replacing it with the laser and vision system which is an inexpensive, easy to use, more accurate and flexible system. In-process monitoring catches production problems, not currently caught or caught at high cost, at the point where they can be resolved with minimal/no cost. Costs are reduced through scrap and rework reductions. Detailed documentation is created for each step with minimal cost. Phase II funding, the team, and in-kind contributions will yield a refined prototype, ready for Phase III, documented as compatible and quickly installed, yielding lower cost, higher quality composite parts.

Keywords:
Composites Composites Composites Dimensions Dimensions Dimensions Hand Layup Hand Layup Hand Layup