The objective of an engineering analysis - a numerical model and simulation designed to represent a specific manufacturing process - is not simply to determine the behavior and impact of that process on a specific product. If that were the case, extensive product testing would be a simpler and cheaper solution. The real objective of an engineering analysis is to use its associated numerical models and simulations to predict the impact of important design and manufacturing parameters on the behavior of the final product in terms of performance and cost. When dealing with advanced composite materials, such parameters include: material, surface topology, layup strategy, ply stacking, among many possibilities. Designers today are faced with the challenge of optimizing composite parts and, should redesign be required, having enough reliable data at hand to justify the redesign's necessity.
A multidisciplinary manufacturing analysis tool for designers, TruPLAN's Advanced Material Kinematics Kernel models how a given composite material behaves during the computation of manufacturing process strategies for automated layup technologies, like: fiber placement, tape laying, and robotics. TruPLAN's Advanced Kinematics Kernel models composite material behavior in terms of design criteria - surface topology, fiber direction, angle deviation, gap/overlap - and manufacturing constraints such as: material compaction, layup temperature, material tension, feed rates, material feeding, machine kinematics configuration. TruPLAN's Advanced Material Kinematics Kernel empowers designers to test advanced composite materials against new or existing design strategies for automated layup technologies (Fiber Placement, Tape Layer, Robotics layup), to discover optimum combinations of materials and manufacturing equipments to ensure desired production rates and costs.
