soaring into the future

Shawn wrote:
From this site:
http://www.advancedcompositetraders.com/html/news.html

Fiber placement and tape laying

The fiber placement process automatically places multiple individual
pre-impregnated tows onto a mandrel at high speed, using a
numerically controlled placement head to dispense, clamp, cut and
restart each tow during placement. Minimum cut length (the shortest
tow length a machine can lay down) is the essential ply-shape
determinant. The fiber placement heads can be attached to a 5-axis
gantry or retrofitted to a filament winder or delivered as a turnkey
custom system. Machines are available with dual mandrel stations to
increase productivity. Advantages of fiber place~ ment fabrication
include speed, reduced material scrap and labor costs, parts
consolidation and improved part-to-part uniformity. The process is
employed when producing large thermoset parts with complex shapes.

Tape laying is an even speedier auto~ mated process in which
prepregged tape, rather than single tows, is laid down con~
continuously to form parts. It is often used for parts with highly
complex contours or angles. Tape lay up is versatile, allowing breaks
in the process and easy direction changes. Capital expenditures for
computer-driven, automated equipment can be significant, however.
Suitable for both simple and complex parts, tape laying is the
current method of choice for wing skin panels on the F-22 Raptor
fighter jet.

As I said before, this would be farmed out to a subcontractor who's
already made the capital investment, unless the glider world sees really
amazing growth.

Given the competing customers for production time in such facilities, I
tend to doubt that "low cost" is being given much attention. But, in
any case, the only way to produce future gliders for an affordable price
will be through innovative manufacturing techniques...

Marc