Fiber Patch Placement for sandwich parts in aerospace: Potential for 7x lay-up acceleration in legacy processes

Following the successful completion, we are happy to present the results of the ACoSaLUS joint R&D project (Automated Composite Sandwich Lay-Up System). Together with aerospace manufacturer GKN Aerospace Deutschland, material supplier SGL Carbon, TUM – Chair of Carbon Composites and Technical University of Applied Sciences Augsburg, we have further advanced Fiber Patch Placement technology basis in the course of this project and introduced new lay-up features.

For current aircraft programs, the aerospace industry still relies heavily on parts that are produced manually at high production costs and with limited scalability. The aim of the project was to develop and test an industrial solution that accelerates the production process for sandwich composites at the example of a the horizontal tail plane (HTP) fairing.  

The results show the great potential of Fiber Patch Placement for retrofitting legacy processes with automation: the lay-up rate could be increased by a factor of >7x, from 1.5 – 2.0 m²/h (reference process) to 14.5 m²/h by using automated FPP lay-up.

Fiber Patch Placement is the first automation technology that enables the lay-up of different material types, from structural carbon fibers to auxiliary ones like glass fibers and adhesives, onto 3D-tools in order to produce complex aerospace parts with one single machine setup.

Read more about the project results and new FPP lay-up features in our project case study – or have a look on the video Fiber Patch Placement for sandwich parts in aerospace (youtube.com).