NASA Tech Explorer
Back to the catalog

Issued patent

Calibration System for Automated Fiber Placement

An issued NASA patent from the Technology Transfer catalog.

View at technology.nasa.gov
Media from NASA Technology Transfer

About this technology

Overview

Innovators at NASA's Langley Research Center have developed a Calibration System for Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) machines. AFP is a modern composites-manufacturing method offering speed, repeatability, and waste-minimization benefits over traditional layup techniques. Used to make aerospace parts and wind-turbine blades, AFP employs a robotic arm to apply strips of carbon fiber prepreg (aka composite tape, or tows) to build up a composite part layer by layer. While advantageous, any imperfectly placed (or slipped) tows generate lap-and-gap defects relative to adjacent tows which can degrade structural integrity by as much as 30%. Currently, manual visual inspection is used to identify and fix such defects before curing, which is highly labor intensive. In-situ inspection systems are emerging, but no method exists to create accurate "defect standards" to facilitate active system calibration. NASA's new calibration system will enable the next generation of AFP in situ inspection technologies.