DEVELOPMENT OF A "DIGITAL TWIN" OF THE AUTOMATED FIBRE PLACEMENT (AFP) LAYUP OF LM-PAEK THERMOPLASTIC MATERIAL USING A PULSED XENON FLASHLAMP HEAT SOURCE

Xenon flashlamps have emerged as an alternative heat source to the laser in Automated Fiber Deposition (AFP) of thermoplastics. A Xenon Flashlamp system, consisting of a flashlamp, reflector and light guide, has been shown to reach the temperatures required to process thermoplastic composites in a similar response time to a laser with reduced safety burden. To quickly determine good process parameters for TC1225 LM-PAEK, an opto-thermal simulation model has been created. Two simulation techniques optical ray tracing and finite element analysis (FEA) were used to characterize the flashlamp source and predict the resultant processing temperature respectively. Using these simulation tools, pulse parameters can be chosen more quickly to achieve a desired processing temperature without a significant number of physical trials.