The automated manufacture of prepreg broadgoods components — a review of literature

An examination of literature relating to the automation of the prepreg broadgoods manufacturing process is presented. The advantages of automation are described by reference to the current manual process. In particular, it is shown that the main driver for automation is perceived to be that it offers more repeatable production of components. Possible methods of automating individual stages of the process are examined, followed by systems which attempt to deal with automation of a greater percentage of the entire manufacturing process from the initial roll of prepreg to a cured component.