Prepreg Narrow Tape Slitting Spooling Machine

When Jota Machinery entered the CFRT working industrial, we designed a prepreg narrow towpre slitting spooling machine.

This slitting spooling machine works with carbon fiber prepreg unidirectional tape and glass fiber prepreg unidirectional tape, with slitting widths of 3.175mm (1/8″), 6.35mm (1/4″), and 12.7mm (1/2″).

The spooled towpre can be utilized for automated fiber placement (AFP), as well as the cladding and manufacturing of space shuttle aircraft.

The materials used in Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) are narrow prepreg tapes with widths ranging from 3.175mm to 6.35mm to 12.7mm.

The narrow width of the strips necessitates a variation of 0.125 mm.

Following the debut of this prepreg narrow towpre slitting spooling machine, a customer from a domestic aerospace research center approached us and requested that we supply this prepreg narrow towpre slitting and winding machine.

This equipment differs from standard spooling machines in that it is devoted to aerospace prepreg, having functions such as PE coating, splicing, and peeling/film (release paper).

The release paper (film) is prone to debris during the slitting process, and if it sticks to the prepreg tow, its quality will suffer.

As a result, the release paper must be recycled prior to slitting the prepreg.

The release paper recycling unit recycles the release paper using the active winding process (film).

A servo-driven rewinding shaft and an automatic tension control system allow for constant tension and uniform speed in the peeling and rewinding of the release paper.

The maximum unwinding width of this slitting spooling machine is 250 mm, and it has a 3-inch air shaft.

The 6-inch air-expanding shaft can be replaced as well. The waste material is immediately rewound to the waste edge device.

The Aerospace Research Institute provided 1100mm wide prepreg unidirectional tape.

To adapt to the narrow tape slitting machine, we will use the JT-SLT-1600D slitting machine while peeling off the release paper at the bottom layer of the prepreg.

If your prepreg is 1100mm broad, it must first be chopped into small rolls before being cut into narrow strips with 250S.

If your carbon fiber prepreg is less than 250mm wide, you can utilize our JT-SLT-250S directly.

Our 250S comes with three sets of slitting specifications for quick and easy replacement of different cutting widths.

As a result, the 3.2 mm and 6.35 mm slitting width are extremely narrow, and Jota Machinery replaced the 250S cutter with a replacement model.

As with the 1600D, there is no need to assemble the spacer and adjust the width. It has a removable tool-cleaning device and a slitting precision of not less than 0.15mm.

The cleaning device is attached to the tool based on how well the resin sticks to it. It is then cleaned with alcohol, which is easy to get rid of after it has been used.

In the section for unwinding, there are two rollers. The one on top moves the prepreg, while the one on the bottom peels off the PE film or release paper.

This equipment has also been tried for CFRT thermoplastic composite materials, and after unwinding, the UD tape can be sent directly through the transfer roller.

After going through the slitting unit, each tow is sent to each axis by the guide wheel.

Our typical model includes six spindle axis.

About March of this year, one of our customers is given an SLT-350S with 16 spindle axis for slitting and winding thermoplastic fiberglass unidirectional tapes.

During winding, aerospace narrow tape prepregs will be glued with PE film for the second time.

The prepreg and PE film will be bonded and wound in parallel on our 250S, which has independent PE film unwinding equipment.

The winding device uses double-slip differential shaft center curling, and the gap-adjustable pressure roller device effectively reduces pressure transition damage to the prepreg coating; the winding cantilever design is more convenient for unloading and operation; the automatic closed-loop tension control, servo control winding tension, equipped with sensors, variable tension winding, automatic program adjustment with diameter change; and constant tensile strength

System of electrical control

• A power cabinet and a main operating cabinet are installed throughout the machine. The power cabinet can be installed according to the customer’s site location, and the operation cabinet can be installed according to the position of the easy-to-operate equipment.
• The entire machine control system uses PLC programming to monitor the primary characteristics of the whole machine in real-time, such as tension, speed, meter, and roll diameter.
• The main stations, such as unwinding, winding, and deviation correction, work in start, stop, manual, automatic, and other modes.
• Customers can open or set access interface permissions based on the scenario for the system’s operation interface, data monitoring interface, system administrator interface, debugging and maintenance interface, fault code analysis, and other interfaces.
• The system is capable of data storage, data analysis, and formula management. It can generate primary control data formulas, such as tension, slitting speed, winding meter, and winding form, based on product specifications. Calling is convenient. The developed formula can resolve a critical issue;
• For safety reasons, every part of the machine has an emergency stop button that must be manually pushed to get back to normal operation.
• The system has both sound and light alerts that use different colors to show the status of equipment and any problems.
• Short-circuit and overload protection are built into the circuit system, and the operation cabinet meets IP54 standards for protection.

Fiber Placement Automation Technology

Using automated fiber placement (AFP) technology, the placement head bundles multiple prepreg tows or dry fibers into a variable-width strip and places it with flexible pressing rollers and auxiliary heating devices.

Place it on the mold’s surface to realize the automatic molding technology of composite materials through heating and compacting.

As the raw material, AFP uses prepreg tow (also known as prepreg narrow tape) with a width of 3.2mm, and 12.7 mm, which can lay irregular shapes such as concave and convex surfaces at the same time, as well as increase or decrease the number of prepreg narrow tapes in real-time to meet the composite’s specific laying requirements such as local openings, regional reinforcement, and adaptive boundaries of material parts.

AFP offers a wider degree of freedom in the laying trajectory than ATL technology, may be put at continuously varied angles, and has considerable advantages in the automatic manufacturing of components with variable curvature and complicated surfaces, with improved product quality and reduced cost.

At the same time, the waste rate of AFP (3%–8%) is lower, the auxiliary material consumption is lower, and the worker labor intensity is considerably lowered; thus, AFP has developed rapidly in recent years.

In recent years, automatic laying technology has advanced considerably.

The laying head gathers many bundles of prepreg tows beneath the flexible pressure roller to form a belt and lays them according to the computer-planned direction.

During the fiber placement procedure, the prepreg thin tape can be independently regulated and turned.

It is extremely adaptable to curved surfaces. It may lay not only concave and convex surfaces, but also apertures, reinforcements, and other features to thicken the layup.

The fiber angle lower deviance and increased productivity.

In terms of civil aircraft, the fuselage structures of the Boeing 787 and A350 were all built utilizing automatic laying technology.

In terms of military aircraft, this technology has been used to build the wing-body fusion body and air inlet of the F-22 and F-35 aircraft.

High-end automatic wire laying equipment is a critical piece of special equipment produced by foreign military aircraft with significant strategic value.