The use of composite materials in the transportation industry continues to grow due to the advantages over metals in reduced weight, higher specific strength, specific stiffness, increased service life and overall design flexibility.  This is particularly true where fuel savings is at a premium.  As a result, advanced composite materials are used extensively in both secondary and primary structures of commercial and military aircraft.  Automotive, trucking and rail industries have also employed composites in many areas to take advantage of the performance advantages of these materials.

The manufacturing challenges of producing the required composite intermediaries, preforms and parts can result in a time-consuming, costly process with unique challenges in maintaining product quality and consistency.  Automation is an immediate consideration to address these issues.  However, it can be difficult to meet the varied needs with a general purpose, standard machine in a cost-effective manner.

Accudyne Systems has created a “part purpose”, “right-sized” approach resulting in a more economical method for developing automation equipment to manufacture composite parts. This “part centric” approach takes into account the composite materials used, process requirements and overall part design to develop machines uniquely tailored to the particular part or family of parts required by our customers.  This results in custom automation equipment yielding higher production rates, improved ROI and lower unit costs.