JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - EXPERT’S DIGEST - ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING - 2020 - 19

EXPERT'S DIGEST
ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

Fig.2: AM washout core and IM7/PEEK structure

significant characteristics include a lack of
intralaminar voids, uniform fibre distribution,
and uniform dimensions. In addition, some
prepreg manufacturers are developing prepregs
that have proprietary attributes optimized for
in-situ TCP AFP [5]. Automated Dynamics is
continually developing intellectual property to
improve the in-situ TPC AFP process [6].

Additive manufacturing
of tooling and cores
The company is now finally bringing these
two technologies together, AM tooling and/

Fig. 4: Preliminary results for topology optimized
AM core for in-situ TCP AFP

Fig. 3: Dan Campbell of Aurora Flight Sciences with their 3DP
jet powered UAV and fly-away cores ,

or cores and AM composites, for complete
AM high-performance structures. Figure 2
shows a PLA (poly-lactic acid) washout core
additively manufactured with a Stratasys FPM
printer with an in-situ fibre-placed IM7/PEEK
outer shell. AM cores can also be fly-away as in
the Aurora Flight Sciences 3DP UAV shown
in Figure 3. Note that in both cases shown, the
AM cores use a standard " sparse fill " pattern
that could be optimized. Automated Dynamics
is currently working on an America Makes project titled " Optimal Design & AM of Complex
Internal Core Structures for High Performance
Aerial Vehicle Production " , led by Dr. Levent
Burak Kara of Carnegie Mellon University. The
technical approach is to develop a computational system for the optimal design and AM of 3D
core structures central to the aerospace industry
(Figure 4). This includes investigating advanced solutions using finite element methods,
nonlinear high-dimensional optimization, and
design for AM (DFAM). Participants include
Automated Dynamics, CMU, Stratasys, Aurora
Flight Sciences, United Technologies Research
Center (UTRC), LM Aero, and Siemens. The
general idea is to optimize AM cores that would
be used for wash-out or fly-away cores for
complex fibre-placed aero-structures [10].

Conclusion
Additive manufacturing and in-situ TCP AFP

Expert's digest jec

have matured after more than 30 years of effort
and are now synergistically combining for the
additive manufacturing of high-performance
composite structures.
More information:
www.automateddynamics.com/automation-equipment/fiber-placement

As published in jec composites
magazine N°119 March 2018
Acknowledgements
This effort was performed through the National Center for Defense
Manufacturing and Machining under the America Makes Program entitled " Optimal Design and AM of Complex Internal Core Structures for
High Performance Aerial Vehicle Production " . It is based on research
sponsored by Air Force Research Laboratory under agreement number
FA8650-12-2-7230. The U.S. Government is authorized to reproduce
and distribute reprints for Governmental purposes notwithstanding
any copyright notation thereon.
References
[1] Hauber, David: Ballistic Particle Manufacturing, 1st International
Conference on Desktop Manufacturing, October 6, 1988, NY, NY, pp.
59-73
[2] de Gennes, P. G.: Reptation of a Polymer Chain in the Presence of
Fixed Obstacles, J. Chem. Phys. 55, 572 (1971)
[3] August, Zachary and Hauber, David: Additive Manufacturing of
High Performance Composite Structures, SAMPE Tech 2014, June 2-5,
Seattle, Washington
[4] Nam, Jae-Do and Seferis, James C.: Generalized Composite
Degradation Kinetics for Polymeric Systems Under Isothermal and
Nonisothermal Conditions, Journal of Polymer Science, Part B: Polymer
Physics, Col. 30, Issue 5, pp. 455-463, April 1992
[5] Private communications with Jim Mondo of TenCate
[6] US20130164498A1 and Improved Bonding for Additively
Manufactured Thermoplastic Composite Structures, USPTO filing,
October 31, 2017
[7] August, Zachary, Marcario, Ralph, and Hauber, David: Additive
Manufacturing of Aerospace Composite Structures, ITHEC 2016,
October 11-12, 2016 Bremen, Germany
[8] http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151109005240/en/
[9] Campbell, Daniel, S.: An Additive Manufactured Wing: The Design
and Analysis of Thin-Wall Structures, SAMPE 2013, May 6-9, Long
Beach, CA
[10] Erva Ulu, James McCann, and Levent Burak Kara: Lightweight
Structure Design Under Force Location Uncertainty, ACM Transactions
on Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2017)

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