Stitched composite preform production

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Fully automated facilities for manufacturing stitched and tufted dry fibre carbon fibre composite preforms.

Carbon fibre composites are well established in the production of aircraft, wind turbine blades, and motor and marine sports, where they are used to make high-performance, lightweight components.

Conventionally, composites were seen as a high cost option, but liquid resin infused dry fibre production offers significant potential cost savings. This process can be made even more economical using dry fibre preforms which reduces handling and lay-up time.

At Cody Technology Park, Farnborough, UK, QinetiQ has a fully automated facility for production of through-thickness reinforced dry fibre preforms using robotic stitching and tufting techniques. The facility is based around industry standard equipment making it equally suitable for both development and production. It is just one of a handful of such facilities in the world.

Benefit features

Large 3D shaped performs - up to 3m x 2m
Thick composite – up to 40mm can be handled
Fully integrated design capability to support preform development
Wide range of sewing threads including carbon
Single-sided stitching techniques available - Tufting, Blind stitching, 2-needle stitching
Processing of preforms with a wide range of resins and techniques including RIFT and RTM

Supporting Information

> Stitched Preform Data sheet [PDF]