Development of a multifunctional robot end-effector system for automated manufacture of textile preforms

In addition to the well-known application fields of composite materials in the aircraft industry, sport cars and wind energy, there are further potential applications e.g. rail, automobile and machine construct. In contrast to dry technology (prepreg), wet technology using reinforced textile preforms offers a cost-effective production of composite structures. These are due to low cost materials, easier storage conditions and automation possibilities. In this work a new multifunctional robot end-effector system for automated manufacture of textile preforms is developed, designed and implemented. The robot end-effector system consists of an adaptive end-effector (AEE) to grasp, manipulate and lay-up the composite fabric onto a flat or curved mold and a novel double tool changer (DTC) to drape the fabric in the mold. The AEE is modular designed and features local passive and active degrees of freedom (DOF) to adapt the fabric geometry to the mold geometry. Furthermore, it is integrated with eight gripper elements with different grasp principles, such as ice-gripper or needle-gripper. Robots using DTC can carry two small tools (in this case two rollers to drape the fabric) and interchange them in the working position. With AEE and DTC, many manual processes in the production chain of textile preforms can be automated and can also be applied to the cost-efficient production of fibre composite parts. The application of this robot end-effector will be demonstrated by the production of a convertible car roof (CCR) with a pilot plant.