Post Cure: TFP supports high-performing UAV wing preform development
The AMRC’s UAV concept is a complex design and manufacturing challenge that provides a shareable testbed, demonstrating the institute’s ability to develop and refine its expertise through a digital thread.
Uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) design used as a platform to test and demonstrate advanced technologies, particularly those related to sustainability and to the digital thread. Source (All Images) | University of Sheffield AMR
Continuous tows were selectively placed along paths of maximum load using a TFP process to stitch the fibers to a James Cropper rCF nonwoven substrate.
The University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC, Catcliffe, U.K.) has realized an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) wing design using tailored fiber placement (TFP) of a James Cropper (Burneside, U.K.) recycled carbon fiber (rCF) nonwoven substrate. The work, used as a platform to test and demonstrate advanced technologies — particularly those related to sustainability and the digital thread — highlights how this process and material combination can achieve intricate, high-performing and sustainable preform options with optimized load paths.
Computational fluid dynamics was used to establish a load case for the wing. From there, continuous tows were selectively placed along paths of maximum load via TFP, stitching the fibers to the substrate. AMRC tested both 20 and 60 gsm nonwoven variants and found both processed well, enabling the use of very thin and lightweight plies.
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