Filament Band Winding Simulation for Fiber Reinforced Cylindrical Pressure Vessels

The filament winding method is widely used to manufacture products of fiber reinforced plastics (FRP), such as high pressure vessels, launch tubes and pipes. For reducing winding time, the method of winding by filament band which consists of several filament fibers is used. NC winding machine is used for precise winding and NC path is needed. Before filament winding, users should verify that winding path which presented by a line is appropriate by filament winding simulation. Also, the used length of each filament is different. So, if the peak filament exhausted, it causes to stop manufacturing. In this research, we developed software which visualizes 3D graphic of filament band winding path and simulates winding process on real time. And we proposed algorithm about calculation of each filament usage. We use geodesic equation for generating filament band surface and calculating the usage length of each filament.