Collaborative process planning method for complex curved surfaces during automated fiber placement

Abstract The automated fiber placement (AFP) technology has drawn considerable interest to replace the traditional hand laid‐up, providing greater productivity, precision, repeatability, reduced waste, and the capability to manufacture complex curved structures. To further advance the application level of AFP, it is essential to exert extraordinary efforts in process planning. In this paper, a collaborative process planning method incorporating process conditions and manufacturing constraints is first developed and described in detail. In it, the mechanism of the key process parameters including pressure, head speed as well as material temperature are analyzed and predicted, respectively. In parallel, the most key manufacturing constraint, critical steering radius, is defined and elaborated. Thereafter, the layup process parameters for a winglet tool is obtained based on the collaborative process planning method. Finally, the method is investigated by the placement experiments of the winglet. Results demonstrate that the method can realize highly efficient and improve the layup quality of the winglet. Such that, the collaborative process planning method can provide an excellent foundation for enhancing the manufacturing precision and efficiency as well as placement quality for complex curvature structures. Highlights A collaborative process planning method is developed and described in detail. FEM simulations and trials of the winglet are utilized to confirm the method.