CAMX 2022 exhibit preview: Composite Automation

Composite Automation (Cape Coral, Fla., U.S.) is joined this year by Isojet Equipements (Corbas, France) and PCM/Lucas Industries (Sainte-Claire, Quebec, Canada) at its CAMX 2022 booth. Isojet Equipements designs and manufactures custom resin transfer, vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) and infusion systems for composites part manufacturing. Offerings from Isojet Equipements include advanced control systems for precise temperature, viscosity and flow controls as well as integrating temperature control into tooling. PCM and Lucas provide tooling solutions and manufacturing process development services. Composite Automation contends that it is the only Manufacturer’s Representative firm in North America that focuses solely on providing composites manufacturing solutions to companies manufacturing various types of composite structures, raw materials and intermediaries. Specifically, the company is able to provide automated fiber/tape placement machines for both thermoset and thermoplastics, filament winding, composites slitting machines, five-axis CNC and waterjet machining systems, prepreg lines, laser projection systems, fiber patch placement (FPP), ultrasonic testing (UT) non-destructive testing and custom automation.

This year, Composite Automation is announcing a toolless thermoplastic in-situ consolidation automated fiber placement (AFP) machine located at Wichita State University’s (WSU, Kan., U.S.) NIAR/ATLAS facilities. This collaboration with NIAR includes Cevotec’s (Munich, Germany) FPP machine and a Mikrosam (Prilep, Macedonia) slitter. Mikrosam has developed its IPLIS online, real-time inspection system so that it can be deployed on any slitter, AFP, automated tape laying (ATL) or filament winding machine.

Composite Automation offers a wide range of composites manufacturing tools for industry professionals, including the new Gunnar AG (Altstätten, Switzerland and Arlington, Wash., U.S.) cutting table that includes an integral pick-and-place system. The materials used in this system can be managed for out-time and location status using Jetcam’s (Monaco) fully integrated CrossTrack material tracking software. Finished parts can be inspected by systems from Arcadia Aerospace (Punta Gorda, Fla., U.S.). In addition, Biesse (Pesaro Italy and Charlotte, N.C., U.S.) is said to have world-class five-axis CNC and waterjet cutting systems for part finishing, sanding or drilling.