[step-manufacturing] Minutes of conference call on composites on August 26

[Martin Hardwick]

Attendees
Martin Hardwick, STEP Tools, USA
David Loffredo, STEP Tools, USA
Fred Proctor, NIST, USA
Mikael Hedlind, KTH, Sweden
David Odendahl, Boeing, USA
Sid Venkatesh, Boeing, USA
Leon Xu, Boeing. USA
Bengt Olsson, Sandvik, Sweden
Alain Brail, Airbus (retired), France
Larry Maggiano, Mitutoyo, USA
Vincent Marchini, Ameritech, USA
Ronnie Fesperman, NIST, USA

Apologies for Absence:
Bob Erickson, Pratt & Whitney, USA
Mikael Hedlind, KTH, Sweden

We discussed the information requirements of tape layup and fiber 
placement machines. These requirements range from the control of a laser 
display showing markup data on the structure, to tool path data with 12 
axes per head and machines with multiple heads operating concurrently.

Today most of the control data is entered by hand on a custom CAM system 
that is sold with the machine. These CAM systems generate cutter 
location data for the 12 axis toolpaths in formats that range from 
APTCL, to spreadsheets, to custom matrix formats.

The files are often very large. The files can be significantly 
compressed if the data format is given more structure.

Inspection is a significant time constraint for many processes because 
the surface has to be checked by hand after each iteration of the layup.

A lot of intellectual property has been developed to ensure that the 
layup's are smooth and without defects.

A recording of this conference call is on the ftp site.  The next 
conference call will be at the regular times on September 9.

ftp://ftp.steptools.com/private/Undecided/stepmanuf_telecon_20110826.wmv

Martin Hardwick
Team Leader