Process innovation in composite manufacturing by Filament Winding: a managerial assessement

DIONORO, GENNARO;PILLONI, MARIA TERESA;ROMANO, DANIELE

2004-01-01

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Abstract

The paper presents a managerial assessment of Robotic Filament Winding (RFW), a promising manufacturing technology in the composite materials industry. Parts are fabricated in automated cells where fibre filaments coated with a polymeric matrix are wound by the robot on a rotating mandrel. While former FW uses rigid automation or Cartesian robots to produce medium-to-large size parts with simple axis-symmetric shape, the recent introduction of anthropomorphic robots has enabled the manufacture of small-to-medium size parts with complex shape. Nearly freeform deposition paths are generated by a suitable software program and realized by the anthropomorphic robot thanks to its additional motion degrees of freedom. The potential of the emerging technology, as compared with the conventional one, is evaluated on the basis of an integrated model which predicts how factors defining the product-process-market scenario affect main key performance (capacity, full product cost, return of the investment). The analysis reveals that the new scenario has a high potential as it not only increases product value but also allows for product diversification by exploiting the inherent cell’s flexibility.