SAMPE Journal - March/April 2020 - 2

FROM THE TECHNICAL DIRECTOR / AUTOMATION IN MANUFACTURING

Automation in Manufacturing: Role of
"Subtractive" and "Additive" Technologies
DR. SCOTT W. BECKWITH, FSAMPE

scott@sampe.org | swbeckwith@aol.com

ver the past half century materials processing and ultimate
manufacturing was often "additive" as well as "subtractive" technology
based. "Additive" in terms of laying up
composite plies into laminated structures in some fashion and then "subtractive" by way of trimming, grinding,
machining, drilling or otherwise fabricating in the final steps to the desired
ultimate geometry. Some manufacturing methods were almost entirely "additive" if. This would include many pultruded parts or molded structures.
However, today we see a lot different
definition of "additive" when we see the
vast expansion into the additive manufacturing world. In this world, automation of such processes are controlled
almost totally by machines that feed
materials into predesigned geometric
structures that could never be manufactured by "subtractive" machining
methods.
Automation. Yes, additive manufacturing lends itself readily to automation
processing once the design and structural engineer develop the processing

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shop floor codes that drive the process
equipment and feed the materials.
Automation sees continued expansion in today's composites manufacturing arena of very large structures
especially in critical aerospace and
automotive technology applications.
Several technologies come to mind
with respect to aerospace applications
used in commercial and military aircraft, space launch vehicles, and even
in the energy arena (e.g. wind turbine
blades). Many of these structures have
dimensions often growing past 100m
(328ft) as in wind turbine blades (and
aircraft structures). Thus, automation
is critical to assure quality control and
consistency in laying down materials
precisely as the design and structural
engineers, in teamwork with manufacturing engineers, specified the process
requirements.
Subtractive technologies still apply
in numerous designs and structures in
order to finalize the end product. However, even machining, drilling, grinding
and other post-processing steps are often required and yet not currently fully

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automated. Non-destructive inspection
(NDI) technologies are currently more
often pursued in order to couple NDI
with processing and "cure-on-the-fly"
methods at the same time materials are
being added to the ultimate structure
and ultimately cured.
SAMPE's various conference programs offer extensive technology papers, featured speakers, panels, tutorials and floor exhibitions on both "Additive Manufacturing" and "Automation".
In addition to SAMPE's two large international conferences that highlight
these prime technologies, SAMPE organizes several key workshops and symposiums in these areas. For example,
SAMPE's 5th "Tooling Technology for
Composites Manufacturing" Workshop
will be held in March. The emphasis on
both automation and additive is readily
seen in the presentations. At the same
time, SAMPE is offering its 3rd "Additive
Manufacturing" technical symposium
later in the late March-early April time
period.
Continued on page 4

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SAMPE Journal - March/April 2020

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