General Electric Company

Martin Petersen

Stefaan Guido Van Nieuwenhove

Sultan Shair

Mathias Ernst Messmer

Andreas Lutz

Thomas Kluge

Christopher James Madsen

Anja Lena Nieratschker

Wendy Wen-Ling Lin

Thomas Merzhaeuser

Shatil Sinha

Ram Kumar Upadhyay

James Duvall Bollacker

Dragan Filipovic

Krishnan Balaji Thattai Parthasarathy

Matthew Hall Beaumont

A system for forming stacked material includes a housing defining an interior space. The housing includes a bottom wall and a side wall coupled to the bottom wall. At least one tool is configured to shape the stacked material. The at least one tool is disposed within the interior space. A membrane extends at least partially over the bottom wall and is spaced a distance from the bottom wall. The membrane is configured to move towards the bottom wall. At least one intensifier mechanism is disposed in the interior space and is configured to induce a force against a portion of the stacked material and against the at least one tool as the membrane is moved towards the bottom wall.

System and method for forming stacked materials

A system includes a gripper device to grasp a disposable proxy. The gripper device is moveable to position a pressure sensitive adhesive in contact with the disposable proxy and apply a pressure force to adhere the pressure sensitive adhesive to the disposable proxy. The gripper device is moveable to position the pressure sensitive adhesive in contact with an edge portion of a first layer of a plurality of layers and apply a pressure force to adhere the pressure sensitive adhesive to the edge portion of the first layer. The system further includes a cutting device moveable to apply a cutting force to separate a sacrificial corner portion of the first layer proximate the edge portion of the first layer from a remaining portion of the first layer. The gripper device is movable to peel the remaining portion of the first layer from one or more remaining layers of the plurality of layers.

System and method for removal of a layer

A method and an automatic layup system for making a stack of a plurality of composite plies are presented. The automatic layup system includes a stacking assembly located in a first plane and a layup tool located in a second plane parallel to the first plane. The stacking assembly and the layup tool are movable towards each other. The method includes the steps of (a) providing one or more composite sheets between the layup tool and the stacking assembly, (b) generating a first composite ply from the one or more composite sheets, (c) placing the first composite ply on the layup tool by the stacking assembly by bringing the stacking assembly and the layup tool close to each other, and (d) repeating the steps (b) and (c) for generating and placing a second composite ply on the first composite ply, which is placed on the layup tool.

Automatic systems and methods for stacking composite plies

A wind turbine is presented. The wind turbine includes a tower, a rotor coupled to the tower, and a plurality of blades coupled to the rotor, wherein each of the plurality of blades comprises a root and a plurality of root inserts positioned circumferentially along the root. Each of the root inserts includes a metal bushing including an outer surface and a plurality of grooves formed at least on the outer surface, a core coupled to the metal bushing, and a plurality of layers wrapped around the metal bushing and the core, wherein a layer of the plurality of layers comprises a different fiber orientation from a fiber orientation of another layer of the plurality of layers.

Root insert and a wind turbine having wind turbine blades with root inserts

An automated in-line feed-through system and method, integrates the ability to control one or more variables during part fabrication with the layup of one or more fiber tows to form a composite part. The system includes an automated layup system configured to receive a feed-through of one or more fiber tows as an input material. The automated in-line feed-through system further includes a controller configured to respond to measurement data obtained by one or more samplings of the input material and/or a plurality of laid up plies that form a laminate. The controller in response to the obtained measurement data provides adjustment of the feed-through of the one or more fiber tows to compensate for a variation in one or more of the weights from a reference weight.

System and method for controlling at least one variable during layup of a composite part using automated fiber placement

An end effector is provided that includes a vacuum source and a plurality of gripping surfaces with each gripping surface including a plurality of vacuum zones having a non-smooth portion for distributing a vacuum, and a plurality of openings defined over the non-smooth portion for distributing the vacuum on the gripping surface using the vacuum source. The plurality of gripping surfaces is generally arranged in a polygonal shape. The plurality of vacuum zones are generally configured to grip cut-outs having a plurality of shapes. Methods are also provided for removing a cut-out from a sheet of material using an end effector having a plurality of gripping surfaces.

Growing community of inventors

Bavaria, Germany

Martin Petersen