The Boeing Company

William Ralph Taylor

Paul Reed Stone

Paul R Stone

An end effector comprises a plurality of vacuum ports. The plurality of vacuum ports is formed from a plurality of hollow protrusions extending from a face of the end effector. The plurality of vacuum ports is connected to a vacuum chamber receiving a vacuum from a vacuum source interface.

Pick and place end effector

Systems and methods are provided for laying up laminates. One embodiment is a method that includes laying up a multi-layer laminate of fiber reinforced material onto a surface, by: feeding a tape of fiber reinforced material to tape cutters which cut the tape into pieces, picking up pieces of the fiber reinforced material via pick-and-place devices at each of multiple lamination units that are in sequence in a direction of travel, and placing the pieces of fiber reinforced material via the pick-and-place devices to form a laminate as the surface and the lamination units change position with respect to each other and multiple pieces are laid-up concurrently.

Growing community of inventors

Tacoma, WA, United States of America

William Ralph Taylor