The paper presents a managerial assessment of Robotic Filament Winding (RFW), a promising manufacturing technology in the composite materials industry. Parts are fabricated in automated cells where fibre filaments coated with a polymeric matrix are wound by the robot on a rotating mandrel. While former FW uses rigid automation or Cartesian robots to produce medium-tolarge size parts with simple axis-symmetric shape, the recent introduction of anthropomorphic robots has enabled the manufacture of small-to-medium size parts with complex shape. Nearly freeform deposition paths are generated by a suitable software program and realised by the anthropomorphic robot thanks to its additional motion degrees of freedom. The potential of the emerging technology, as compared with the conventional one, is evaluated on the basis of an integrated model which predicts how factors defining the product-processmarket scenario affect main key performance (capacity, full product cost, return of the investment). The analysis reveals that the new scenario has a high potential as it not only increases product value but also allows for product diversification by exploiting the inherent cell’s flexibility.
[1]
M. Bannister,et al.
Challenges for composites into the next millennium : a reinforcement perspective
,
2001
.
[2]
Freddy Yin Chiang Boey,et al.
Development of a low-cost prototype filament-winding system for composite components
,
1995
.
[3]
Madhav V. Rajan,et al.
Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis
,
1972
.
[4]
P. Sorenti,et al.
A cell for the manufacture of composite components by filament winding
,
1988
.
[5]
Lubomir Markov,et al.
Conceptual design of robotic filament winding complexes
,
1996
.
[6]
F. Duvall.
COST COMPARISONS OF WET FILAMENT WINDING VERSUS PREPREG FILAMENT WINDING FOR TYPE II AND TYPE IV CNG CYLINDERS
,
2022
.