Layup

Lay-up tooling provides a method and apparatus for use in manufacturing a composite part. These tools can be manufactured in a variety of materials such as aluminium, steel, invar and nickel shell. They can be fabricated from sheet material, cast from master patterns or machined from solid billets depending on form and size.

The lay-up tool generally has a single surface that the resin impregnated composite material layers can be laid up on. This surface is either bounded by periphery bars that create a net edge which requires no profiling or by run-off areas which allow the part to be formed over size for post trimming on down stream tooling.

Once the part has been cured under auto clave heat and vacuum pressure it is drilled with master reference holes before being removed from the tool and positioned in the next sequenced tool for either profile machining, hole drilling, assembly or inspection.

More recent developments in composite production have seen lay-up tools evolve from only controlling the surface of the part in contact with the tool to systems such as Resin Infusion and Resin Transfer Moulding. These processes use dry textile pre-forms which are, resin-impregnated, consolidated, and cured in a single step therefore eliminating costly pre-impregnated tape manufacture and ply-by-ply lay-up. Other major advantages of these processes are that the consolidation of the resin and material creates a far stronger part and it is also possible to control features on both surfaces of the part with a high degree of accuracy.