Free form fabrication of thermoplastic composites

This report describes the results of composites fabrication research sponsored by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program at Sandia National Laboratories. They have developed, prototyped, and demonstrated the feasibility of a novel robotic technique for rapid fabrication of composite structures. Its chief innovation is that, unlike all other available fabrication methods, it does not require a mold. Instead, the structure is built patch by patch, using a rapidly reconfigurable forming surface, and a robot to position the evolving part. Both of these components are programmable, so only the control software needs to be changed to produce a new shape. Hence it should be possible to automatically program the system to produce a shape directly from an electronic model of it. It is therefore likely that the method will enable faster and less expensive fabrication of composites