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Towards the automation of composites manufacturing

Javier Vallejo, manufacturing processes, IDEKO, discusses the zero-defect advances being made in the FOTOPOL project.

Key Highlights:

IDEKO

Fibre-reinforced polymer composites are used in different sectors because of their light weight and excellent mechanical performance. However, many of the manufacturing processes for composite materials are manual and excessively labour-intensive.

Automated composite manufacturing processes are essential to reduce costs and defects resulting from manual process variations. One of the enabling technologies for automation in many composite manufacturing processes is photopolymerisation, also known as UV curing, which is widely used in high-productivity sectors for polymer coatings, printing inks and adhesives.

However, photopolymerisation has several shortcomings that impede its widespread use in industrial processes. These include the need to use thermosetting resins, the lack of photoresins derived from renewable sources, the inability to work with opaque fibres, the impossibility of using inorganic fillers, and the low incidence of zero-defect manufacturing processes.

In this sense, having materials from sources other than oil is essential to boost the sustainability of composites, eliminating one of the major drawbacks: their dependence on polymers derived from crude oil. Additionally, the recyclable nature of composite structures enhances the fundamental end-of-life aspects, and facilitates both repairability and recyclability.

This requires research into new sustainable processes based on new photocurable materials. Although current manufacturing processes based on photopolymerisation are versatile, R&D work is required to integrate the new materials.

Beyond incorporating bio-based materials that facilitate repair and recycling, achieving circularity and sustainability requires taking into account digitalised processes that minimise defects and rejects.

In addition, it is crucial to introduce innovative concepts for extending end-of-life as well as for reusability. The advantages of photopolymerisation in repair processes can be combined with the recyclable features of the new materials to develop more energy, productivity and waste-efficient repair processes. Furthermore, the ease of separation of the different components of the composite will allow access to simpler and more cost-effective recycling processes, boosting the circularity of photocomposites.

FOTOPOL paves the way to zero-defect processes

To overcome the challenges arising from the application of photopolymerisation in the production of composites, IDEKO is leading the Spanish FOTOPOL project, in the framework of the Elkartek programme of the Basque Government, to develop new zero-defect, efficient and sustainable processes for manufacturing, repairing and recycling without limitations in the use of reinforcements.

The project will focus on optimising frontal photopolymerisation for composites with opaque fibres, investigating the influence of filler addition and adapting prepreg and additive manufacturing processes to the newly developed formulations.

Another challenge will be to transform traditional composite manufacturing processes into ZDM (Zero Defects Manufacturing) processes. In particular, research will focus on the development of multi-physics models and robotic control strategies for UV-curable assisted pultrusion and monitoring methods, process and product inspection and physical models for the design of adaptive controls of prepreg manufacturing processes.

All the developments developed within the framework of FOTOPOL will be validated in a demonstration unit to test the complementarity of the new materials and production processes developed. The primary sectors of application will be automotive, rail, shipbuilding, energy and construction.

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