This facility consists of Tufting and Z-pinning heads which will be retrofitted on to a KUKA robot.
Year of Establishment
2017-2020
Test Applications
Tufting and Z-pinning technologies can be used in airframe composite structures considering the improvement it provides in damage tolerance of joints and areas where state of stress is three dimensional in nature. The following areas of airframe are targeted.
a) Cocured joints in airframe structures like skin to spar,
skin to rib joints, stringer run out areas in skins
b) Areas prone to external impact like access panels in aircraft belly and landing gear areas.
Test Features
Robot:
- Robot is KUKA industrial robot
- 6 axis DOF,
- max payload capacity of 150 kg
- 2.7 metre robot arm range (max)
Tufting Head:
- Tufting of carbon preform up to 2mm
- Tufting pitch: 3mm to 15mm
- Tufting spacing: 2mm to 50mm
Z-pinning Head:
- 20 KHz with a power rating of 2000 Watt
- Titanium alloy sonotrode
Amplitude/ Frequency/Power of the ultrasonic generator is controllable.
Image
