Lightweight carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites (CF-TPCs) are internationally recognized as one of the most promising composite materials capable of achieving the future aerospace market high-rate demand. Manufacturing automation is the pathway to handle the TPC high processing temperature requirements and achieve a higher rate, better process control/quality, and lower operational costs. A challenging, but a key enabler of the high-rate TPC manufacturing is CF-TPC welding.
Robotic Continuous Ultrasonic Welding (CUW) was successfully demonstrated using critical components of an aircraft engine fan cowl use case in a prior ARM Institute project, demonstrating improvements over induction welding techniques with a greater than 5x speed increase over state-of-the-art induction welding.
The Demonstration of Thermoplastic Composite (TPC) Rapid Welding at Scale Project built on the outputs and learnings from the prior ARM Institute project to advance the technology with the demonstration use case using a full product-scale aircraft nacelle fan cowl part. This further demonstration of viability set a key foundation for transition to industry use. The project team matured and implemented multi-modal sensing, automated planning, and in-situ control for weld quality and efficiency, demonstrating rapid TPC welding at scale. RTX Collins Aerospace, one of the leading aircraft engine nacelle suppliers, supported and guided this pivotal demonstration.