Modular Design
Customize your winding robot with modular building blocks
TANIQ’s robotic filament winding equipment uses modular building blocks to configure the optimal system for your winding process. The most important building blocks are:
Industrial Robots
The main component of the robotic winding machine is the industrial robot arm. There are different robot brands with a wide variety of robot specifications. Each brand has their own product range (e.g. payload, reachability, repeated accuracy, ect.) and controller technology. TANIQ has experience with KUKA, Yaskawa Motoman and ABB robots.
Spindle
A spindle is an axis for rotating the mandrel during the filament winding process. The spindle rotation is driven by a motor + gearbox combination which is synchronized to the robot movements. The spindle design is based on the mandrel+product specification, including length, weight and moment of inertia. Following these specifications, the spindle is optimized for maximum speed (RPM). Most spindle are single-side driven, but can be configured with a motor+gearbox on both sides. The spindle has a chuck or alternative clamping system for connecting the mandrel to the spindle.
Fiber Winding Tools
A winding tool is required to guide the material from the bobbin to the mandrel. In the standard winding configuration the winding tool is attached to the end of the robot arm.
There are different winding tools depending on the materials used. For conventional wet winding a fiber winding tool is used for winding multiple fiber bundles simultaneously, which come together as a band of fibers on the end-roller or eyelet. For winding of small tapes (e.g. towpreg) a similar tool can be used, having rollers with dedicated width and coating for that material.
Tensioners
A tensioner is an auxiliary system that keeps the fibers at the required tension during the winding process. For accurate tension control each fiber bobbin has its own tensioner position. Typical fiber tensions for filament winding are between 5N-40N.
There are different fiber tensioning systems for different winding processes and applications. The most basic tensioning systems for winding glass reinforced pipes rely on friction or simple mechanical brakes. More advanced tensioning systems use a combination of motors, load cells and mechanical dancer arms to allow for high winding speeds and accelerations.
TANIQ has developed their own fiber tensioning system for enhanced tension control at high accelerations using sticky (e.g. towpreg) materials.
TANIQ Tensioner(s)
AFP Heads
For winding and placement of towpreg and thermoplastic tapes an Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) Head is used. The AFP head performs the critical tasks of applying, heating and compacting the fiber material onto the mandrel or product surface. For thermoset towpreg a constant low heat (30-40 deg C) is required, provided by an IR heat source. For thermoplastic tape higher temperatures (100-140 deg C) and a rapid change in heat capacity are required, which requires the use of advanced laser lights. Alternative solutions are using gas torch heating (direct flame) or pulsed light solutions like the Humm3.
Using Automated Fiber Placement technology the tape spool is typically positioned on the AFP Head, enabling a direct feed of the material to the pay-out roller, such that the tape doesn’t need to be routed from an auxiliary tensioner system, preventing damage and tension-loss in the tape.
TANIQ has worked intensively on thermoplastic tape winding for COPVs during a three-years development project with Fraunhofer IPT (Germany). TANIQ can supply robotic winding systems with integrated third-party AFP Heads.
Track
For manufacturing of larger parts, the robot can be placed on a track enabling the robot to move in linear direction along the length of the mandrel. The track can be customized to the required length.
Impregnation bath
In the ‘wet winding’ process, the fibers are impregnated with a (epoxy) resin using an impregnation bath. The impregnation bath is positioned after the fiber tensioner and before the winding tool. The function of the impregnation bath is to apply the resin on the fiber while spreading the filament for optimal impregnation, and a device for controlling the resin uptake and removing the excess resin. Advanced resin baths have a mixing station where the two-component epoxy is mixed and fed to the resin bath, where the resin temperature is controlled to obtain the best processing conditions.
TANIQ chooses from commercially available resin baths depending on the client’s requirements.
Drives & PLCs (HMI's)
To integrate further automation and auxiliary equipment to the robotic winding system, additional (robot) motors and drives can be added. There are options for programming the drives itself or using the robot controller or industrial PC.
