Extrusion 8-2017

100% In-Line Inspection of Composite Materials ... ... for the highest process reliability and resource efficiency Composite materials are playing an increasingly important role in numerous industries, and they are often used in safety-rele- vant areas such as aviation, the automotive industry, and in the construction of wind power plants. Thus the inspection of fiber- reinforced plastics is of crucial importance for manufacturers. State-of-the-art tools now enable a completely new level of H Increasing competitive pressure to ever higher quality standards means that the requirements are becoming ever greater for manufacturers of fiber-rein- forced plastics and other composite ma- terials, especially given that most of the products are used in applications with very high safety standards. End custo- mers, such as in the aviation and auto- motive industries, require their suppliers to have all materials certified, which is why the quality produced must be fully recorded and documented. Camera-ba- sed, all-in-one inspection solutions ensu- 42 Inspection Technology Extrusion 8/2017 re that composite materials are reliably inspected at high resolutions. The new systems can be deployed and integrated in a targeted fashion, even in highly spe- cialized manufacturing processes, while covering all customer-specific require- ments. Complete inspection and quality documentation in roving/tape production In the manufacturing of rovings/tapes, where a large amount of windings are produced right next to each other simul- For the highest production efficiency: Reliable detection of loosely attached fibers (fuzz balls) in fiber-reinforced plastics and additional 3D height measurement in topological expression taneously, the inspection system moni- tors the individual rovings/tapes with ex- tremely high accuracy. All relevant de- fects are detected and classified in real time. This enables the machine operator to take corrective action and eliminate defects, thus significantly increasing the share of usable product. In the produc- tion of rovings/tapes, the system is able to measure and evaluate each rov- ing’s/tape`s width, as well as detect split or protruding filaments. The system creates a defects log for each individual spool, thus ensuring 100% inspection and quality documentation. Comprehen- sive tools for statistical evaluations en- able additional conclusions to be made regarding the manufacturing process, helping to optimize production lines – saving time, costs and resources. Typical defects on fiber composites are detected, classified and visualized for the user in real time quality assurance: In addition to the monitoring of raw materi- als (fabrics, roving) and epoxy resin coatings (pre-pregs), they ensure that the individual rovings/tapes are measured and in- spected, while also determining the height of topological mate- rial defects in three dimensions. This significantly increases the range of applications and improves production monitoring con- siderably.