Pressure control for pneumatic pressing roller in automated fiber placement

In automated fiber placement (AFP), the contact pressure between the roller and the mold is an important process parameter. Too small or too large contact pressure will result in unacceptable laying defects. This paper focuses on the control method of contact pressure in AFP. Firstly, the dynamic model of the pressing foot mechanism is established, and a mathematical relationship of input air pressure and output force is developed. Then, a self-tuning PI control algorithm is used to implement servo control of the roller output force based on the Slowly Time-Varying Recursive Identification Algorithm. Also, using Abaqus/CAE, the mapping relationship between the contact area and measurements from displacement sensors is established to predict the contact area in real time. Finally, the contact pressure control method is established by combining the servo control method of contact force and the prediction method of contact area. Experimental results show that the constant pressure control method can effectively stabilize the contact pressure, with a pressure fluctuation of less than 4% under the experimental conditions set in this paper.