Applied Sciences (Feb 2022)

Design of Fiber-Composite/Metal–Hybrid Structures Made by Multi-Stage Coreless Filament Winding

  • Pascal Mindermann,
  • Ralf Müllner,
  • Erik Dieringer,
  • Christof Ocker,
  • René Klink,
  • Markus Merkel,
  • Götz T. Gresser

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/app12052296
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 5
p. 2296

Abstract

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Additive manufacturing processes, such as coreless filament winding with fiber composites or laser powder bed fusion with metals, can produce lightweight structures while exhibiting process-specific characteristics. Those features must be accounted for to successfully combine multiple processes and materials. This hybrid approach can merge the different benefits to realize mass savings in load-bearing structures with high mass-specific stiffnesses, strict geometrical tolerances, and machinability. In this study, a digital tool for coreless filament winding was developed to support all project phases by natively capturing the process-specific characteristics. As a demonstration, an aluminum base plate was stiffened by a coreless wound fiber-composite structure, which was attached by additively manufactured metallic winding pins. The geometrical deviations and surface roughness of the pins were investigated to describe the interface. The concept of multi-stage winding was introduced to reduce fiber–fiber interaction. The demonstration example exhibited an increase in mass-specific component stiffness by a factor of 2.5 with only 1/5 of the mass of a state-of-the-art reference. The hybrid design approach holds great potential to increase performance if process-specific features, interfaces, material interaction, and processes interdependencies are aligned during the digitized design phase.

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