Composite material laser flaw detection
First Claim
1. A method to detect flaws in the placement of composite tows by a fiber placement apparatus after the tows have been laid up on a substrate to form a composite surface, comprising the steps of:
- acquiring image data across at least a portion of the laid up composite surface;
processing the image data to obtain feature data representative of the location of the edges of individual tows forming the laid up composite surface; and
determining the occurrence of flaws in the laid up composite surface using the feature data.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method of and apparatus for detecting flaws on a composite surface laid-up by a fiber placement machine. The invention includes a vision imaging system (78) mounted on the machine so that it has a field of view of the composite tows after they have been compacted by a compaction roller (74). In one embodiment, the visual imaging system (78) includes a laser analog displacement sensor. The imaging system provides a computer analysis system (84) with data regarding the location of the edges of the individual composite tows. The computer imaging system (84) uses the tow edge location data to compute the location and size of gaps or overlaps between the tows or the presence of foreign material. This information is useful in quality control models to evaluate the manufacturing process or final part quality.
163 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A method to detect flaws in the placement of composite tows by a fiber placement apparatus after the tows have been laid up on a substrate to form a composite surface, comprising the steps of:
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acquiring image data across at least a portion of the laid up composite surface; processing the image data to obtain feature data representative of the location of the edges of individual tows forming the laid up composite surface; and determining the occurrence of flaws in the laid up composite surface using the feature data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An apparatus for detecting flaws in the placement of composite tows after they have been placed on a substrate, the apparatus comprising:
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a fiber placement machine including a fiber placement head and a control system used to place individual composite tows on the substrate; an imaging system coupled to the fiber placement head, the imaging system having a field of view of a portion of individual composite tows that have been placed on the substrate by the fiber placement machine to form the laid up composite surface, the imaging system producing image data representative of the laid up composite surface resulting from placement of the individual composite tows on the substrate; a data analysis system that receives the image data produced by the imaging system and analyses the image data to produce data representative of the occurrence of flaws on the composite surface. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification