Prescriptive comprehensive approach for the engineering of products made with composites centered on the manufacturing process and structured design methods: Review study performed on filament winding

Abstract

At first, this research seeks to develop the technology required to fabricate two surfaces of revolution via filament winding: a concavity and a convexity. Concerning mandrels technology, the detachable mandrel concept is chosen among others. Their engineering is conducted conventionally based on free-thinking design approaches, as well as expertise and overconfidence. Consequently, the demoulding process of the concave surface is inefficient due to the lack of adequate dismantling functions of the respective mandrel, leading to damage of the composite material during demoulding, mandrel rework and delays. These inconveniences motivated a reexamination of the mandrels design process. Thus, three structured design methods were incorporated: Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA), Functional Analysis (FA) and Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TIPS, a.k.a. TRIZ). Their synergistic implementation allowed the correct demoulding of the concave surface of revolution. In a second stage, this experience serves as reference for proposing a comprehensive, iterative, prescriptive and unified approach aimed at filament-wound products. It focuses on the base material (composites) and the manufacturing process (filament winding), being applicable to other fabrication processes of composite products. It is based on three models reported in the literature: one for metals, one for composites and one for filament-wound composites. Each of its steps is carried out with well-known structured design methods employed in products and systems engineering, including but not limited to DFMA, FA and TRIZ. As regards results, at the level of the design problem of the mandrels, the importance of the correct establishment of mechanical functions – dismantling in this case – is observed. In particular, how the lack of demoulding functions impacts unfavorably the quality of the final product. As respects the comprehensive approach, a significant outcome is the “filament winding thinking,” as an evolution of other schemes such as “metals” or “composites thinking” followed to generically develop products according to the nature of their base material.