SMALL-SCALE FILAMENT WINDING MACHINE FOR PRODUCING FIBER COMPOSITE PRODUCTS

Over the years, filament winding has been recognized as a cost effective technique to produce composite products with superior properties. In this paper, small-scale automated filament winding machine was designed and fabricated. In filament winding process, the fiber is impregnated with resin and wrapped on a cylindrical shape mandrel. The designed machine integrates mechanical, electrical and electronics components all controlled by a single PIC 18F452 microcontroller. The paper presents series of algorithms that control the entire winding processes. The machine generates helical winding patterns with various angles. The winding patterns are achieved by controlling separately rotational speed of mandrel and translational speed of carriage block on the lead screw. Testing of the prototype shows that it is capable of producing winding angles in the range from 40 to 80 degrees. This machine can use for training the new students as a part from their study of fabrication of long fiber composite materials.