Automated tape laying is a mature process used in both commercial and military aircraft applications. This article provides a brief history of the process and describes the use of commercially available flat and contour tape-laying equipment. It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the tape laying. The article describes the various components of a ten-axis gantry-type tape laying machine and the tape laying process. It provides a discussion on typical material types and forms for tape laying and provides information on design guidelines for tape laying.

In-process inspection during composite material lay-up is essential if the structural, dimensional, and environmental performance designed into a part is to be consistently achieved. This article discusses the requirements to be met by the facilities and equipment to produce high-quality composites. It reviews the procedures that are allowed and prohibited in controlled-contamination areas of lay-up. The article emphasizes significant areas, such as material control and lay-up process, in which quality-control personnel can be effective in preventing production problems. It concludes with a discussion on automated tape laying and fiber placement, as well as the numerically aided lay-up process.

This article schematically illustrates a fiber placement system and provides information on the applications of fiber placement. It discusses materials and design considerations for fiber placement. The article provides information on techniques that can be used to eliminate areas of missing tows.

This article describes the characteristics of thermoplastic composites and its material forms. It presents the steps and considerations in manufacturing the thermoplastic composites. The article describes the various techniques of manufacturing, such as consolidation, autoclave molding, diaphragm forming, compression molding, roll forming, bladder molding, liquid molding, filament winding, and pultrusion.

The prepreg hand lay-up process is a versatile, reliable, cost-effective, and high quality process for fabricating large or small components. This article discusses the technique characteristics and applications of the process. It describes the stages involved in the process of lay-up, namely, lay-up definition, ply-kit cutting, layup, debulking, and preparation for curing. The article concludes with a discussion on the component properties and design guidelines of the prepreg hand lay-up process.

This article reviews various rapid prototyping (RP) processes such as stereolithography, powder sintering, hot melt extrusion, sheet lamination, solid ground curing, and three-dimensional printing. It discusses the various material prototypes produced by RP technology. The list of materials includes particulate and fiber-reinforced polymers, ceramic-matrix composites, and metal-matrix composites. The article also provides information on freeform-fabrication techniques for composite part lay-up.

This article describes common design criteria and identifies the design considerations that have a significant effect on the end product. The design criteria include cost, size, mechanical properties, repeatability and precision of parts, damage tolerance and durability, and environmental constraints.

This article describes the types of fabrics and preforms used in the manufacture of advanced composites and related selection, design, manufacturing, and performance considerations. The types of fabrics and preforms include unidirectional and two-directional fabrics; multidirectionally reinforced fabrics; hybrid fabrics; woven fabric prepregs; unidirectional and multidirectional tape prepregs; and the prepreg tow. The article discusses three major categories of tape manufacturing processes, namely, the hand lay-up, machine-cut patterns that are laid up by hand, and the automatic machine lay-up. It provides a description of the two classes of prepregs. These include those that are suitable for high-performance applications and suitable for lower-performance molding compounds.

Designing composites for structural performance initially involves meeting a set of desired performance specifications at a minimum cost. This article discusses the factors that are considered in designing the manufacturing of polymeric composites. It describes the various aspects of manufacturing, forming process, and post-processing and fabrication for designing the composites.

This article provides information on the applications of fiber-reinforced composites in commercial and military aircrafts. It tabulates the composite components in various types of aircraft. The applications of the composites in the components of Boeing 727, 737, 757, 767, 777, and 777-200 are schematically illustrated.

Wet lay-up using hand or spray techniques is one of the simplest methods of combining a fiber reinforcement with a solidifying resin to form a composite structure. This article describes several wet lay-up processes - including contact molding, spray molding, vacuum bag molding, and autoclave molding - suited for making parts on open-faced molds using polyester and vinyl ester resins. The article also provides information on mechanically assisted lay-up which can be automated to alleviate some of the manual work.

This article illustrates the polymer matrices used for composite materials. It describes the use of prepeg materials in manufacturing high-performance composites. The article discusses the various infusion processes for the development of fiber-reinforced composites, namely, resin transfer molding, vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding, and resin film infusion. It explains the composite- and matrix-toughening methods for fiber-reinforced composites, such as dispersed-phase toughening and interlayer toughening. The article concludes with information on optical microscopy, which provides an insight into the micro- and macrostructure of fiber-reinforced composites.

Advanced thermoplastic composites possess impact resistance, fracture toughness, and elevated temperature endurance properties due to their melt-fusible nature. This article presents the material options available for thermoplastic composites such as pseudothermoplastics, post-impregnated thermoplastics, and true thermoplastics. It describes the processing methods of thermoplastic composites, including weaving, seaming, autoclaving, preconsolidation, roll consolidation, roll forming/pultruding, thermoforming, press forming, hydroforming, and diaphragm forming. The article provides information on different types of joints, namely, fastened, adhesive bonded, dual polymer bonded, co-consolidated, and welded joints. It explains the joining methods of thermoplastic composites, such as press forming, diaphragm forming, autoclaving, ultrasonic welding, resistance welding, and induction welding.

This article describes processes and equipment that are used to produce composite tubular parts. The processes include sheeting, pattern cutting, tube rolling, shrink tape debulking, and finishing. The article provides a discussion on materials that are most suitable for tube rolling: preimpregnated materials and unidirectional tapes. The article also discusses wrapping techniques of cylindrical and tapered tubes, such as convolute and spiral wrapping.

This article provides information on the thermoplastic resins used as matrix materials for continuous fiber reinforced composites. It focuses on the materials that are suitable for fabrication of structural laminates and used for aerospace applications. The article provides a discussion on the background, categories, characteristics, product forms, properties, cost benefits, and processing techniques of thermoplastic resins. Strategies that have been advanced to deal with impregnation difficulties are also discussed.

Filament winding is a process for fabricating a composite structure in which continuous reinforcements, either previously impregnated with a matrix material or impregnated during winding, is placed over a rotating form or mandrel in a prescribed way to meet certain stress conditions. This article describes the advancements in filament winding and lists the advantages and disadvantages of filament winding. It discusses the effects of fiber tension in filament winding and the selection of fibers, resins, and materials for filament winding. The article emphasizes the three basic filament-winding patterns, such as helical, polar, and hoop. It presents information on the applications of filament winding, including rocket motors, natural gas vehicle (NGV) tanks, and sporting goods. The article presents recommendations for the basic design guidelines for filament-winding design/manufacturing process and concludes with a discussion on fabrication recommendations.

Continuous fiber composite materials offer dramatic opportunities for producing lightweight laminates with tremendous performance capabilities. This article describes the kinematics of fabric deformation and explains the algorithms used in draping simulation. It discusses the basic components, such as laminate and ply, of continuous fiber composite. The article provides information on the core sample and ply analysis. It details producibility, flat-pattern evaluations, and laminate surface offset. The article discusses various interfaces, such as the structural analysis interface, the resin transfer molding interface, the fiber placement and tape-laying interface, and the laser projection interface.

Good hole-drilling processes are key to joining composite parts with other composite parts or with metal parts. This article discusses the considerations for drilling polymer-matrix composites. It describes the use of power-feed drill motors and automated drilling/fastener installation equipment. The article provides a discussion on reaming, countersinking, and three recommended choices of cutting tools for producing a countersink in carbon/epoxy structure. The cutting tools include: standard carbide insert cutters, solid carbide cutters, or polycrystalline diamond (PCD) insert cutters. The article concludes with a discussion on inspection of hole quality.

Ultrasonic inspection is a nondestructive technique that is useful in both quality control and research applications for flaw detection in fiber-reinforced composite materials. This article describes ultrasonic nondestructive analysis by outlining its three basic types of scans. It reviews the important quality control techniques used during the manufacture of composite components by analyzing tooling control, material control, pattern orientation control, and in-process control.

This article explains the key features of the manufacturing techniques for polymer composites. It describes the selection of a technically and economically feasible manufacturing technique for a composite design. The article discusses widely accepted and emerging techniques to manufacture polymer composites such as open-mold techniques.