Spirit AeroSystems acquires robotic Electroimpact AFP machine
The new machine, featuring an upgraded AFP head said to place material more than twice as fast as traditional machines, will be devoted to research and development.
.jpg;width=70;height=70;mode=crop;format=webp)
Spirit AeroSystems (Wichita, Kan., U.S.) has acquired a new robotic automated fiber placement (AFP) system from Electroimpact (Mukilteo, Wash., U.S.), featuring an upgraded AFP head said to place composite material more than twice as fast and nearly three times more reliably than traditional AFP heads. The addition of the new machine brings Spirit’s AFP machine count to 17, solidifying the company’s position as the world’s largest user of AFP technology. Spirit has more than 15 years of experience with AFP and machines from MTorres, Ingersol and Electroimpact fabricating large composite structures for Boeing, Airbus and defense customers.
The new machine will be Spirit’s second AFP machine that is completely dedicated to research and development. The overall system comprises a robot mounted on a rail with an AFP head that places the carbon fiber onto a part. Along with enabling higher speeds and reliability of material placement, the high-speed AFP head also reportedly features enhanced accuracy and real-time process monitoring.Todd Rudberg, senior engineer at Electroimpact, describes the high-speed AFP head as “critical to our goals for reaching extreme AFP reliability performance, and more importantly is a giant step towards extreme utilization.”
