IRVINE, Calif.—Manufacturing software specialist CGTech says that it was “thrust full speed into the world of composites” in 2004, after being asked by Boeing (a CGTech customer since 1989) to develop a program for simulating automated fiber placement (AFP) machinery used to fabricate parts for the Boeing 787. In 2005, the project progressed to include development of a programming solution for AFP machines. Today, CGTech’s VERICUT Composite Applications are being used by major manufacturers to program and simulate their AFP machinery.
Recently, the company released Version 7 of its VERICUT Composite Applications: VERICUT Composite Programming (VCP) and VERICUT Composite Simulation (VCS). According to CGTech, VCP reads CAD surfaces and ply boundary information, and creates fiber-placement paths to fill the plies according to user-specified manufacturing standards and requirements. Lay-up paths are linked together to form specific lay-up sequences, and are output as NC programs for the AFP machine.
VERICUT Composite Simulation reads CAD models of the lay-up tool and fixtures, and simulates the lay-up sequence directly from NC program files. Tow material is applied to the lay-up form via NC program instructions in VERICUT’s virtual CNC simulation environment. The simulated material applied to the form can be measured and inspected to ensure that the NC program follows manufacturing standards and requirements. A report showing simulation results and statistical information can be automatically created.
According to the company, VCS simulates directly from NC program files, either from VCP or from other composite lay-up path-generation, off-line programming applications. VERICUT’s CNC control emulation and NC program simulation technology is said to allow VCS to be configured “to simulate virtually any format CNC program and machine kinematics.”
Manufacturers that implement machine-independent automated fiber placement (AFP) programming and simulation software are free to select the best machine for a specific part, family of parts, or manufacturing process, without having to introduce a different piece of software into the engineering process for each different brand of machine. “When a machine tool builder is also developing the software to program their machines, the software tends to be restricted to the technology of the machine,” said CGTech Product Marketing Manager Bill Hasenjaeger, in a statement. “When software is separate from the machine and applied in a variety of applications, the software and underlying technology expands. The metal cutting industry has seen the same happen with advances in CAD/CAM.”
CGTech (www.cgtech.com) specializes in numerical control (NC/CNC) simulation, verification, optimization, and analysis software technology for manufacturing.
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