The Boeing Company

Merrill W Hogg

Alan K Jones

Paul J Shirron

Wei-Pai Tang

Allen B Hagen

Alan S Locke

Jung Soo Park, Legal Representative

Roger L Williams

Woi-Pai Tang

In Kon Kim

A composite member and an associated method for forming the composite member are provided. The composite member is formed of a plurality of elongate tapes. Each tape is disposed a path defined by a plurality of natural path segments, each of which defines a non-natural offset angle relative to the adjacent segments.

Composite member defining a contour surface

Method for laying composite tape

A composite part program generator includes a computer-aided design (CAD) system interface, a path generator, a course head manager, a post-processor and a machine simulator. The composite part program generator produces composite part programs for use on a multihead composite material application machine, such as a composite tape lamination machine or an automated fiber placement (AFP) machine, to manufacture a complex composite parts, including relatively flat, contoured, or generally cylindrical composite parts. This programming method can reduce the labor and time required to produce a composite part program for a multihead composite material application machine by an order of magnitude with respect to manual or existing automated programming methods.

Multihead composite material application machine programming method and apparatus for manufacturing composite structures

Growing community of inventors

Maple Valley, WA, United States of America

Merrill W Hogg