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。曲棍球棒已使用手铺叠和气囊成型制成。在当前的制造方法中，复合材料（纤维和基质）层用手铺放在心轴上。随后使用橡胶心轴将复合材料层压靠在阴模上。随后，施加加热以固化树脂。虽然这种方法已经使用了很多年，但它是劳动密集型的。为降低生产成本，生产已外包至海外。随着市场竞争越来越激烈，有必要找到使用自动化制造曲棍球棒的替代方法。自动铺丝机的出现为解决这一问题提供了可能。 AFP机器不仅可以自动生产复合材料结构，而且还提供了快速的生产速度和产品的可变性。AFP机器已被波音、Aribus、Bell Flight和庞巴迪等大公司用于制造飞机机身等先进结构。Concordia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。这是打算使用这种AFP机器制造曲棍球棒。该项目的挑战涉及曲棍球棒的小尺寸，与飞机部件的大尺寸相比。AFP已经成功地制造了大型飞机复合材料结构，但是使用AFP制造诸如曲棍球棒的小尺寸部件的可行性仍然需要确定。 本项目的目的是研究这种可行性。鲍尔曲棍球有限公司将与康考迪亚复合材料中心的研究人员合作解决这个问题。将使用碳/环氧树脂垫片。第一部分生产将在Concordia使用AFP机器完成，第二部分生产将在Bauer Hockey Ltd.使用气囊成型完成。**

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.**