WO2002048442A1

WO2002048442A1 - Device for producing continuous non-parallel fibre materials and production line incorporating same

Info

Publication number: WO2002048442A1
Application number: PCT/FR2001/003905
Authority: WO
Inventors: Pascal Rossignol
Original assignee: Pascal Rossignol
Priority date: 2000-12-12
Filing date: 2001-12-11
Publication date: 2002-06-20
Also published as: FR2817883B1; AU2002219279A1; FR2817883A1

Abstract

The invention concerns a device (D) for making a non-parallel and non-woven continuous fibre material consisting of the following parts: a subassembly for displacing (100) the material using means for attaching (110) threads or fibres (300) on either side of the driven material; at least a subassembly for setting (200) threads of fibres (300) on said material. Said device is characterised in that the subassembly for laying (200) threads or fibres (300) is mobile and consists of at least a module bearing at least a thread bound to flexible linkage transmitting means (220) forming a loop driven in continuous movement, said thread-bearing module (210) following a rectilinear trajectory on the rectilinear parts of the flexible linkage and a curvilinear trajectory on the rounded parts of the flexible linkage loop. The invention also concerns a production line accommodating said device. The invention is useful for making a material with non-parallel continuous fibres.

Description

DEVICE FOR PRODUCING NON-PARALLEL CONTINUOUS FIBER MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING CHAIN ADOPTING SUCH A

DEVICE

FIELD OF APPLICATION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to the field of materials with nonwoven non-parallel continuous fibers, in particular composite materials and adaptations enabling them to be produced under the best conditions. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART Optimization of materials such as those used in composite materials, reinforcements for materials, composite structures and structural fabrics such as, for example, boat hulls, works based on composite fibers, wings or airplane fuselages, automobile hulls and bodies, boat sails, pressurized tanks or balloons, requires an organization of the fibers in compliance with the stress fields.

However, the use of conventional materials with parallel threads forming the warp and the weft, does not allow this optimization in the case where the material is subjected to forces generating stresses having various orientations on the same part.

One solution to this drawback lies in the use of materials comprising fibers oriented according to the stress fields. The ratio between the quantity of fibers and the performance is greatly improved because the need for fibers on this type of material is much lower than on a traditional material. there exist in the prior art devices for laying non-parallel non-woven fibers which use the movement of a transport head of one or more threads over a work surface by describing back and forth movements on the X and Y axes combined or not so as to carry out the laying of said wires according to a geometry or a pattern whether dedicated or not. However, these Manufacturing devices have limited productivity due to the use of mechanical or pneumatic, linear alternative systems with successively accelerations, decelerations and stops which define a particularly low average speed of deposition of the wire.

An embodiment of a device of this type is illustrated in document No. WO 85/04838. In this embodiment, a plurality of modules carrying son or fibers is associated with a means for moving the formed material on which said son or fibers are deposited. This embodiment is the exact illustration of the alternative linear systems mentioned above. In fact, said thread carrier follows an alternating movement over the width of the surface material, said reciprocating movement being carried out at an evolving speed according to the arrangement of the thread carrier at the end or mid-stroke. Likewise, arriving near the lateral edge of the surface material, said wire-carrying device describes a special stroke for said device in order to allow good attachment of the fibers to the fixing means provided for this purpose on each edge of the surface material or film formed. . In fact, the manufacture of materials with non-woven fibers requires, during the laying of said fibers, the presence on each side of the formed material, of means for fixing said fiber, the carrier module of which ensures bypassing so that a loop is created on the fixing means and that the fixing means serve as a fiber retaining point during the return movement of the fiber-carrying module.

A crank type device ensures the reciprocating movement of the wire-carrying modules. Although this device is particularly usable in the application described, it can only provide difficulty in setting in motion modules carrying wires over long lengths. Likewise, this mode of embodiment is particularly suitable for nonwoven materials, in particular multi-axial fabrics (layers adopting an angle conventionally fixed at more or less forty-five degrees) adopting an orientation of fibers relative to each other almost similar, namely that the fibers deposited before gluing will be one race in two, parallel to each other. In fact, in the application described, the ends of the wire-carrying modules are only rarely set in motion. The type of setting in motion of the wire-carrying modules is partially responsible for this lack of flexibility in that the parameters to be managed for a particularly flexible production of the nonwoven material are too numerous. As described in such an embodiment is particularly unsuitable for the production of specific nonwoven material and of very large dimensions.

Another embodiment of this type is described in document No. US 5355820. This document describes a device for laying thread on a film comprising:

- a table,

a film supply means for supplying film to said table along a plane defined by the axes X and Y,

- a pair of guide rails on each side of said table and over its entire length along the X axis,

- a pair of drive means, one on each guide rail,

- a means for controlling said motor means on each guide rail along the X axis, - a gantry across the table and oriented so as to interconnect the two motor means, at least one wire supply means guided on the gantry for a back and forth movement on the gantry along the Y axis.

Although this device is more suitable for carrying out specific productions because of the separate control of the means linked to the ends of the gantry the movement followed by the wire feed means is an alternative translational movement along the gantry. Similarly, the possibility of a separate control of two motor means of the gantry forced the designers of this device to create a gantry accepting an elongation or a shortening which can only complicate the gantry and make its manufacture particularly expensive.

Similarly, as for the device previously, this device requires the instantaneous management of the coordinates of the wire supply means, which complicates the management by automaton or program of this type of device especially when the gantry is to be lengthened. DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION On the basis of this fact, the applicant has carried out research aimed at designing a device for producing a material with continuous non-parallel and non-woven fibers, suitable for large dimensions and allowing great flexibility in orientation of the constituent fibers or threads.

In addition, the applicant has paid particular attention to imagining a device which is particularly capable of managing the changes of direction which it will have to make.

The device of the invention is of the type made up of the following parts: a sub-assembly for setting the material in motion, using means for attaching the wires or fibers on either side of the entrained material, - at least one sub-assembly for laying wires or fibers on said material.

According to the main characteristic of the invention, the device is remarkable in that the subassembly for laying wires or fibers is mobile and consists of at least one module carrying at least one wire, linked to a means of flexible link type transmission forming a loop driven in continuous movement, said module wire carrier thus following a straight path on the straight parts of the flexible link and a curved path on the rounded parts of the loop of the flexible link. 5 This characteristic is particularly advantageous in that it makes it possible, without an additional system, to carry out the bypassing by the wire to be deposited of the attachment means of the fibers arranged on either side of said material. Also, unlike the prior art, _ _Q no additional device is necessary to achieve this same bypass. Indeed, the loop formed by the drive means causes the wire-carrying module to make a curvilinear trajectory outside the surface material, thus allowing, in

] _5 return movement, to find itself in a position offset from its first linear movement. This kinematic solution is particularly simple and will facilitate the maintenance of the device.

The creation of a closed circuit allows a

20 particularly high linear speed for the wire-carrying module. Indeed, a continuous speed without acceleration or braking makes it possible to avoid the drawbacks of the alternative devices described in the prior art. In addition, this high and regular speed allows dynamic control of the tension of the threads or fibers deposited by the laying sub-assembly of said threads or fibers. The result is a final material having an almost perfect isotension of the fibers composing it and consequently a flat material despite the

30 variations in density and direction of the threads or fibers deposited.

Another advantage in carrying out a continuous displacement and at constant speed of a wire carrier module is the ease of modeling, for the purpose of

35 programming, of such an actuator. Indeed, while the di spos iti fs of the prior art give as parameters, the spatial coordinates of the wire-carrying module along at least the X and Y axes to be managed as well as its speeds and accelerations on said axes, the device of the invention, by proposing a known stroke, and a constant speed, greatly facilitates the programming of the automaton responsible for managing the operation of laying the wire on the surface material.

The capacity of the device of the invention to carry out the displacement of the wire-carrying module at high speed compensates for the small number of wires which can be deposited by such a device.

Another object of the invention is constituted by the production line which adopts such a device and which will be described below. The fundamental concepts of the invention having just been exposed above in their most elementary form, other details and characteristics will emerge more clearly on reading the description which follows and with reference to the appended drawings, giving by way of 'nonlimiting example, an embodiment of a device according to the invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective drawing illustrating an embodiment of a manufacturing device according to the invention,

FIG. 2 is a top view illustrating the different orientations that the device of the invention can take,

Figure 3 is a detail view of the wire carrier module linked to said flexible link.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

As illustrated in the drawing in FIG. 1, the device for manufacturing a material with non-parallel and non-woven fibers of the invention is referenced D as a whole and is of the type made up of the following parts: a sub-assembly 100 for setting in motion the material created,

- At least one sub-assembly 200 for laying wires or fibers 300. According to the nonlimiting embodiment illustrated, a film F may be interposed between the working surface and the laying frame so as to accommodate the laying of the wires or fibers. In accordance with the invention, the subassembly 200 for laying wires or fibers 300 is movable along the subassembly for setting in motion 100. This subassembly for laying 200 consists of at least one module carrying wires 210 linked to a flexible link type transmission means 220 forming a loop driven in continuous movement, said wire-carrying module 210 thus following a rectilinear trajectory on the straight parts of the flexible link 220 and a curvilinear trajectory on the rounded parts of the loop flexible link 220.

This characteristic is particularly advantageous in that it greatly facilitates the modeling and the computer management of the production of said non-woven and non-parallel fiber material by proposing a continuous movement and consequently at continuous speed of the wire-carrying module 210. Similarly , without movement, the wire laying sub-assembly 200 ensures the laying of two separated wires.

According to a preferred but nonlimiting embodiment, said movement setting sub-assembly brings the material and / or the attachment means below the wire-laying sub-assembly 200 and maintains said material in position during the operation for laying said son or fibers 300, produced by setting in motion said laying subassembly 200. However, the applicant does not want to limit itself to a single operating mode and it must be understood that the film F or the material created and the installation sub-assembly 200 are in relative movement 1 'relative to one another. According to a particularly advantageous characteristic of the invention, said loop formed by the flexible link is arranged so that the curvilinear trajectory of the wire-carrying module 210 is defined outside the limits formed by the hooking means located at on either side of the material created. Thus, without auxiliary or additional movement, the wire or fiber 300 brought by the carrier module 210 bypasses said attachment means 110 provided for this purpose. This characteristic is particularly important in that not only the devices of the prior art depend on the relative speed between the material created and the laying subassembly 200 to achieve the offset necessary for bypassing said fastening means 110 but also had to put in place a complex dynamic of the movement of the carrier module 210 in order to slow down its travel once the hooking means 110 are exceeded to optimally ensure the bypassing of the hooking means for the purpose of good attachment or good hooking of the installed wires.

Said attachment means 110 can be made up either of brush pins or of combs which can be flexible or rigid, fixed or mobile. According to a preferred embodiment, said flexible link 220 is constituted by a chain rotating continuously by means of at least one toothed wheel 230. According to the preferred embodiment illustrated, the drive of chain 220 is ensured by two wheels toothed 230. According to another embodiment, said flexible link 220 is constituted by a belt. The applicant does not want to limit himself to the type of flexible link 220, which could for example be a belt driven by pulleys, but reserves the right to adapt it according to the applications, in particular when the material is created from a table. not having a flat surface. This application is possible during the production of material having a predetermined volume shape. Thus, depending on the bearing surface on which the fibers or the wires 300 come to rest, the use of a flexible link 220 capable of adopting a stroke, for example curvilinear in height, is an advantage of the invention. Likewise, the flexibility of the drive link 220 of the wire-carrying module 210 has the advantage of allowing complex strokes varying the difference (angular or not) between the fiber laid in the forward stroke and that laid in the return stroke.

As illustrated in the drawing in FIG. 2, said loop 220 is guided by a frame 240 which, forming a gantry above the sub-assembly 100 for setting in motion the material created, comprises at least one means for setting in motion said loop 220. The means for setting in motion for the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1 is constituted by at least one motor (not shown) ensuring the setting in motion of said toothed wheels 230, when said flexible link is constituted by a chain.

As illustrated, said chassis 240 comprises at least one and here two means of setting in motion and guiding 250 and 260 independent of each other but also of the means of setting in motion of the wire-carrying module 210 in order to ensure its movement by in relation to the material created.

According to a preferred embodiment, each end of the chassis 240 is linked by an articulation to said independent means of setting in motion 250 and 260 of setting in motion here, rectilinear along the longitudinal axis of the work table on which the material, so that the action of a single means of setting in motion 250 or 260 at a first end ensures the rotation around its other end of the chassis 240. The rotation of the chassis 240 has the advantage of providing a wide choice of angular orientations for laying wires.

As illustrated, the acceleration of the independent means of setting in motion 250 with respect to the means 260, their travel in the opposite direction or the difference between their respective speeds, cause the rotation of the chassis 240 and consequently the laying of wires according to the angle defined by rotation. Similarly, the realization of an acceleration of the means 260 relative to the means 250 allows the realization of an opposite laying angle relative to the first.

The applicant does not want to be limited moreover to a single possibility of trajectory followed by the means 250 and 260 which is here rectilinear. Thus, for example, these trajectories can be circular, curvilinear if the guide rail of the means 250 and 260 describes the same circle or two distinct and opposite arcs of a circle or any other non-rectilinear trajectory. The device of the invention, due to the articulated connection between the means for setting in motion the installation sub-assembly and the chassis of the sub-assembly itself, allows any form of guide rail. Thus, it is possible to adapt the shape of the rails to the production of specific products. For example, when the independent means of setting in motion generate a constant linear speed, specific rails will allow the variation of the stroke according to the trajectory followed. Thus, on the basis of mass production, it is possible to produce one or more rails suitable for generating variable speeds and thus saving regulation and management of the speed of said means for setting in motion.

Furthermore, the guide rails can follow a mixed trajectory, namely, rectilinear over one length and curvilinear over another. Likewise, it is perfectly possible for said paths to pass over the surface on which said threads or fibers are placed.

According to other applications, it may be useful that the installation sub-assembly ensures rotation around an instantaneous center of rotation punctually fixed. To this end, the sub-assembly for laying the wires or fibers can advantageously be detached from the means of movement 250 and 260 present at its ends and ensure only a rotation around a stud which would be placed on the surface on which are placed the son or fibers. Also, the device of the invention no longer obeys the same constraints as those defined by the devices of the prior art but offers wide flexibility in the solutions for the arrangement and orientation of the wires or fibers.

Thus, the device D of the invention is particularly flexible and, because of its kinematics, maintains a constant linear speed whatever the orientation of the chassis 240. These rotations are only possible by a specific characteristic of the invention, namely that the half length of the drive loop of the support module 210 of wire 300 is greater than the width of the material created and therefore of the film

F. According to the invention, the wire-carrying module 210 adopts a constant linear speed over a length greater than the width of the film F. These characteristics thus associated have the advantage of allowing the laying of fibers over wide possibilities of orientation. . Indeed, the device of the invention allows the maintenance of a constant speed whatever the orientation of the chassis 240. In fact, the lengthening and shortening of the gantry in the devices of the prior art lengthened the stroke or decreased it, and consequently had an influence on the linear speed of the wire carrier.

As illustrated in the drawing in FIG. 1, the frame 240 for guiding the module carrying wires or fibers 300 is associated with at least one means of tensioning said wire 300 constituted by an elastic rod in bending perpetual 241 to maintain the tension when the latter has a significant slack thus ensuring a constant non-zero tension of the son or fibers 300 of said material. In fact, when the wire-carrying module 210 ensures, because of the length of the frame 240, the movement of the wire 300 beyond said attachment means and ensures its return to this part where no attachment means is present, the wire 300 has a significant slack, slack which must be caught up in order to avoid any malfunction due to the presence of an untensioned wire. According to an embodiment imagined by the applicant, the slack management can also be carried out in collaboration with a pneumatic means which, by blowing and / or sucking the wire or the fiber 300 at the ends of said guide frame 240 of the module wire carrier 210, facilitates its passage through said attachment means 110 so that the fixing of the fiber or wire 300 on the latter 110 is ensured or optimized. ^The applicant has also advantageously imagined that this constant tension could be achieved by a flexible rod 241 capable, by remaining in flexion, of instantly catching up with the point slack which forms on at least one end of travel of the wire-carrying module 210 by passing from a flexed position to an extension.

The use of a rod 241 made of composite material has the advantage of proposing an instantaneous slack take-up and over a great length. Conventional tensioning devices such as the brakes on the reels cannot adequately perform this function since the thread-carrying module follows a loop path, trajectory during which the thread can be held on the outward journey but not on the return by said conventional means of tensioning. Nevertheless, the slack take-up device imagined by the applicant is associated with coils and conventional tensioning devices to ensure the best supply of 300 wire possible. Thus, the dynamic control of the tension of the thread or the fiber during its laying is carried out for the application presented at a speed ranging from one to ten meters per second by "donor" devices of the type with conventional electronic sensor such as those sold. under the trademark "ROJELECTROLEX".

As illustrated in the drawing in FIG. 3, the wire-carrying module 210 is here constituted by a bent tube 211 in which the driven wire 300 slides. As illustrated, the flexible link 220 ensuring the setting in motion of the hook is constituted by a chain with links on which is mounted a plate 212, which plate ensures the rotation guidance of said bent tube 211 which is mounted in free vertical rotation like the illustrates the double arrow E. The shape of said tube is not limiting and can of course change depending on the type of attachment means used.

Another object of the invention consists of the production line for a material with non-parallel continuous fibers comprising a plurality of devices ensuring the following operations:

- laying of wires on a work surface,

- coating or gluing said wires, - steaming, and

- laminating or other treatment, which is remarkable in that said sub-assembly for setting in motion 100 of the surface material consists of a single conveyor belt ensuring the setting in motion of said material from device to device throughout its manufacturing.

This characteristic is particularly advantageous in that it avoids any detachment of the material from its means of setting in motion and any re-positioning on a new means of setting in motion and thus makes it possible to reduce production times. It is understood that the device for manufacturing a material with nonwoven and non-parallel fibers and the production line adopting such a device, which have just been described and represented above, have been for the purpose of a disclosure. rather than a limitation. Of course, various arrangements, modifications and improvements could be made to the above example, without however departing from the scope of the invention taken in its broadest aspects and spirit. Thus for example, it is possible that the wire laying module 300 is constituted by a plurality of loops 220 ensuring the setting in motion of at least one wire carrying module 210. Likewise, it is also possible that each flexible link ensures the movement of a plurality of wire carrier modules 240.

Claims

1. Device (D) for manufacturing a material with continuous non-parallel and non-woven fibers of the type made up of the following parts: - a sub-assembly for setting in motion (100) of the material using means of attachment (110) of son or fibers (300) on either side of the entrained material, - at least one sub-assembly for laying (200) of son or fibers (300) on said material, CHARACTERIZED BY THE FACT THAT the laying sub-assembly (200) of threads or fibers

(300) is mobile and is constituted by at least one module carrying at least one wire, linked to a flexible link type transmission means (220) forming a loop driven in continuous movement, said wire-carrying module (210) thus following a rectilinear trajectory on the rectilinear parts of the flexible link and a curvilinear trajectory on the rounded parts of the loop of the flexible link.

2. Device (D) according to claim 1, CHARACTERIZED BY THE FACT THAT said movement setting sub-assembly (100) brings the material and / or the attachment means (110) below the sub-assembly for laying son (200) and maintains said material in position during the laying operation of said son or fibers, performed by moving said laying subassembly (200).

3. Device (D) according to claim 1, CHARACTERIZED BY THE FACT THAT said flexible link (220) rotates continuously by means of at least one wheel (230), and is arranged so that the curvilinear path of the wire carrier module (210) is defined outside the limits formed by said hooking means (110).

4. Device (D) according to claim 1, CHARACTERIZED BY THE FACT THAT said loop (220) is guided by a frame (240) which, forming a gantry above the sub-assembly (100) for setting in motion the created material, comprises at least one means for setting in motion (230) said loop (220).

5. Device (D) according to claim 4, CHARACTERIZED BY THE FACT THAT said chassis (240) comprises at least one means of setting in motion and guiding (250 and 260) independent of the means of setting in motion of the son carrier module (210) in order to ensure its displacement relative to the material created.

6. Device (D) according to claim 5, CHARACTERIZED BY THE FACT THAT each end of the chassis (240) is linked by an articulation to an independent means of setting in motion (250 and 260) so that the action of a only means of setting in motion (250 or 260) at a first end ensures the rotation of the chassis (240) around its other end.

7. Device (D) according to claim 1, CHARACTERIZED BY THE FACT THAT the half-length of the drive loop of the wire-carrying module (210) is greater than the width of the material created.

8. Device (D) according to claim 4, CHARACTERIZED BY THE FACT THAT the guide frame (240) of the module carrying son or fibers (210) is associated with at least one means of tensioning said wire constituted by an elastic rod (241) in perpetual bending to maintain the tension when the latter has a significant slack thus ensuring a constant non-zero tension of the threads or fibers of said material produced.

9. Device (D) according to claim 4, CHARACTERIZED BY THE FACT THAT the guide frame (240) of the son or fiber carrier module (210) is associated at its ends with pneumatic means which, by blowing and / or by sucking the wire or the fiber (300), facilitates its passage through the said hooking means (110) so that the fixing of the fiber or the wire (300) on the latter (110) is ensured or optimized.

10. Production line for a material with non-parallel and non-woven continuous fibers adopting a device (D) according to any one of claims 1 to 9, and comprising a plurality of devices ensuring the following operations:

- laying of wires on a work surface,

- coating or gluing said wires, - steaming, and

- laminating or other treatment,

CHARACTERIZED BY THE FACT THAT said movement sub-assembly (100) of the created material is constituted by a single conveyor belt ensuring the movement of said material from device to device throughout its manufacture.