Advanced Composites

Advanced composites are made by combining strong reinforcing materials, like fiberglass or carbon fibre, with polymer resin during such manufacturing processes as filament winding, infusion, resin transfer moulding and compression moulding. 

Composites are popular in automotive, aerospace, and marine industries as in addition to offering strength, corrosion resistance, and possibility for intricate designs, they can be up to 75% lighter than traditional materials.

Ply cutting delivers fast and accurate processing of various composite matting materials utilised in the manufacture of hand-layup composite components.

The control software of our machine optimises the nesting, material feed and cutting sequence, minimising material wastage, processing time and material handling.

Accessing ply cutting will allow you to introduce automated features, and experiment with process efficiency gains in ply preparation.

The benefits of access to our onsite equipment include:

• accurate and repeatable high-speed cutting of composite fabric plies
• nesting, kit sequencing and part identification for reliable processing
• minimising material wastage and re-work
• reduced manual labour input on repetitive cutting processes

How could ply cutting benefit your business?

Trialing ply cutting requirements through the AMRF will provide you with an opportunity to validate the benefits of this type of machine against current processes. You will also be able to make comparisons in labour versus capital cost, material yield, pattern repeatability, reduced production time, and kitting preparation effort. 

Filament winding offers advanced capabilities for manufacturing of reinforced composite structures.

Our filament winder specialises in wrapping parts with towpreg (carbon, E-glass, basalt etc), enabling precise and efficient production across a range of component geometries in a controlled environment. The configuration makes it ideal for winding types III, IV, and type V Carbon Overwrapped Pressure Vessels (COPVs).

 The benefits of accessing this equipment include:

• Validating towpreg winding process development without disrupting existing production
• Developing winding methodologies from simulation to proven application
• Testing traceability and inspection regimes before moving to production
• Production scale fixture development and testing
• Staff development in the application of filament winding and inspection

How could filament winding benefit your business?

Developing filament winding methodologies is a capital-intensive undertaking. Our investment in an industry scale robotic system and expertise, will provide an opportunity for you to investigate and apply this advanced manufacturing technique to specific production applications in a low cost and low risk environment. Whether it’s small volume in-space or large format transport vessels, or something in between, the AMRF can support your application. 

Compression moulding is a versatile process designed for forming composite parts using moulding techniques. Compression moulding offers a high quality finish in terms of part consolidation, dimensional accuracy and defect mitigation.

Our equipment is used for proving tooling performance and moulding processes, supporting high-quality, high-production-volume applications where curing of both thermoplastic, and thermoset composites is required.

Access to compression moulding at the AMRF will provide you the opportunity to experiment with composite ply compression applications, through to complete cured moulding techniques. Moulding capability coupled with other onsite composite equipment and expertise, will enable broad product development scope under one roof.

The benefits of accessing this equipment include:

• process development using controlled parameters, stepping through pressure, temperature and curing differentials
• moulding trials utilising temporary tooling developed on our moulding press and precision machining work cells
• product validation through process control and metrology equipment

How could compression moulding help your business?

Utilising this moulding press will provide you with an opportunity develop cost effective production methods. These benefits are available no matter whether you are a start-up pursuing an MVP, or a mature manufacturer looking to prove out a process before going into tooling production. The press is ideal for manufacturing everything from sheet- or bulk-moulding compound, high stress structural applications using prepreg fabrics, and components with detailed cosmetic finishes in high-volumes.

Our custom moulding press will provide the operational flexibility to break down composite moulding processes and develop the required knowledge to validate the outcomes when scaling production. 

The CMS Kreator is a hybrid machining cell capable of creating large format printed components for end use or tooling applications. 

It incorporates a 5-axis simultaneous CNC in a gantry-style kinematic with high-rate fused deposition modelling (FDM) polymer printing. 

Creating near-net shapes with the polymer printing head and finishing with 5-axis machining ensures rapid, accurate parts for tooling or critical end-use applications in defence, space, tooling, or plant processing equipment. 

Our machine combines polymer printing with five-axis precision machining capabilities. It produces complex geometries by printing large format short fibre reinforced structures, ideal for creating intricate and robust moulds. The combined print and machining functionality enables efficient product development, maximizing productivity.

The gantry design supports a large open working volume for high-speed manufacture with minimal setup. The hybrid capability offers cost effective development of prototype moulds, production parts, and tooling.

The benefits of accessing this equipment include:

• complex part creation on one platform minimising development costs and speed to market
• rapid development of tooling proof of concept from design to finished product
• large format composite mould manufacture in fibre reinforced polymer or aluminium
• rapidly reconfigurable platform for high mix/low quantity of large parts manufacturing

How could a hybrid machining cell help your business?

Scale, flexibility and complementary metrology equipment under the one roof reduces the number of supplier variables to refine when transitioning a product into a commercial production environment.

Availability of this large format machine will offer you a unique product development stepping stone to scale prototypes to production and provide rapid iteration of early stage designs and concepts. Coupled with the hybrid capabilities, this drilling and trimming machine can prove both printing and machining processes on a single platform.