Visually guided ply placement equipment for composites Anaglyph Ldt PlyMatch™
During manufacture of composite structural components by manual lay-up, it is necessary to position plies of dry or wet fabric or prepreg accurately on a tool, or on preceding plies. Template methods or specialised equipment are often used for this purpose, in order to aid the operator in correctly and accurately locating a ply. Accuracy in ply placement as well as quality assurance regarding the correct ply sequence and orientation are very important factors in the manufacture of high-cost, high-performance composite components.
The purpose of the novel Ply Placement Visual Aid System is to display together on a computer screen a live video image of the "real world" that the operator is interacting with, and a computer-generated image of the structure and composite ply being assembled.
The data for the computer generated drawings of the plies that are displayed correctly in place, may originate from virtually any CAD application, or from our own Laminate Tools software application, for additional features. Laminate Tools is a powerful design tool for composite material structures, and includes industry-leading draping simulation capabilities for ply definition.
