Process-based Cycle Time Estimation for the Thermoplastic Tape Placement

Abstract

In order to meet manufacturing process decisions, it is necessary to know the expected production costs. Unlike the thermoset tape placement, the thermoplastic tape placement is not yet available for industrial applications other than the aircraft sector. Therefore, there is insufficient production data available for the thermoplastic tape placement concerning the cycle time in relation to part geometry, weight, etc. Compared to other composite manufacturing techniques the process time plays a big role due to the exorbitant placement time. As a result, the previously developed cost estimation approaches cannot fulfill this demand because these models are not suitable for qualitative analysis of the elements and shape complexity. Therefore, the determination of the process time, which depends on component complexity, is only available as an inconsistent function and gives relatively fuzzy statements about the manufacturing costs. The method of the production cost estimation introduced here is a steady function based on the process-physics of the thermoplastic tape placement. The result is that, the complexity of the component and manufacturing system is transferred into the cycle time which is solely based on the measurable process parameters. Furthermore, the verification procedure of the theoretical attempt is introduced and discussed.