Intelligent Resin Delivery System for Manufacturing Large Composite Structures

Fabrication of large composite structures, such as recreational yacht hulls and wind turbine blades, is a cost intensive and high-risk operation, which must be carefully controlled to meet demanding design specifications and reduce defects. In this study, the goal was to develop an intelligent resin delivery system that can easily be integrated into the existing traditional setup in production environment and without any modifications to the mold. A prototype system with two resin supply lines and 16 optical sensors was developed. The system automatically monitors and adjusts resin flow in the mold in real-time using a controller. The effect of process setup parameters on the resin flow was investigated with the design of experiments technique to identify the best settings. The results showed that the automatic system can successfully control the resin flow, hence can be a potential future option in composite manufacturing.