Feasibility study on the use of automated fiber placement (AFP) for the manufacturing of composite hockey sticks****

本申请涉及使用自动纤维铺放机制造由Bauer Hockey Ltd.设计和制造的曲棍球棒的可行性研究。曲棍球棒是用手工铺设和膀胱模塑制成的。在目前的制造方法中，复合材料(纤维和基质)的层被手工铺设在芯棒上。其次是使用橡胶心轴将复合材料层压缩到凹模上。随后，对树脂进行加热固化。虽然这一过程已经使用多年，但它是劳动密集型的。为了降低制造成本，制造已经外包到海外。随着市场竞争变得越来越激烈，有必要寻找替代方法来使用自动化来制造曲棍球杆。自动纤维铺放机(AFP)的出现可能为这个问题提供了答案。AFP机器不仅可以自动生产复合材料结构，而且生产速度快，产品变化性小。AFP机器已经被波音、阿布扎比、贝尔飞行和庞巴迪等大公司用来制造先进的结构，如飞机机身。康科迪亚复合材料中心有一台AFP机器，已与Bell Flight和庞巴迪合作用于许多项目。它打算使用这台法新社的机器来制造曲棍球棒。该项目面临的挑战是，与飞机部件的大尺寸相比，曲棍球杆的尺寸很小。AFP在制造大型飞机复合材料结构方面已经取得了成功，但AFP用于制造小尺寸部件(如曲棍球杆)的可行性仍有待确定。该项目的目标是研究这一可行性。鲍尔曲棍球有限公司将与康科迪亚复合材料中心的研究人员合作解决这一问题。将使用碳/环氧预浸料。第一部分的制造将在Concordia使用AFP机器完成，第二部分将在Bauer Hockey Ltd.使用膀胱模塑完成。**

This application concerns itself with a feasibility study for the use of automated fiber placement machine to manufacture hockey sticks designed and made by Bauer Hockey Ltd. The hockey sticks have been made using Hand Lay Up and bladder molding. In the current manufacturing method, layers of composite materials (fiber and matrix) are laid up on a mandrel by hand. This is followed by the use of rubber mandrels to compress the layers of composite against a female mold. Subsequently, heating is applied to cure the resin. While this process has been used for many years it is labour intensive. In order to reduce the cost of manufacturing, the manufacturing has been outsourced overseas. As the market is becoming more competitive, it is necessary to find alternate ways to manufacture the hockey sticks using automation. The advent of automated fiber placement (AFP) machine may provide the answer to this problem. AFP machines can not only produce the composite structures automatically, it also provides fast rate of production, and less variability in the product. AFP machines have been used to make advanced structures such as aircraft bodies by major companies such as Boeing, Aribus, Bell Flight, and Bombardier. The Concordia Center for Composites has an AFP machine that has been used for many projects in collaboration with Bell Flight, and Bombardier. It is intended to use this AFP machine to manufacture the hockey sticks. The challenges for the project involve the small size of the hockey sticks, as compared to the large dimensions of aircraft parts. AFP has been successful in making large aircraft composite structures, but the feasibility of using AFP for making parts of small dimensions such as those of the hockey sticks still needs to be determined. The objective of this project is to study this feasibility. Bauer Hockey Ltd. will collaborate with researchers at Concordia Center for Composites to address this issue. Carbon/epoxy prepregs will be used. The first part of the manufacturing will be done at Concordia using the AFP machine, and the second part of the manufacturing using bladder molding will be done at Bauer Hockey Ltd.**