[2A2] Investigating eddy current directional probes for inline monitoring of automated composite fibre placement
M Mussatayev, Q Yi, M Fitzgerald, P Wilcox and R Hughes
University of Bristol, UK
Advances in automated composite manufacturing techniques enable carbon fibre-reinforced polymers (CFRP) to be manufactured at significantly increased rates to help meet global demand. However, without accurate inline monitoring for defects and manufacturing flaws, the inspection and reworking of parts continue to be a key bottleneck to improving production efficiency. The detection of defects during the fibre deposition process, such as misalignment or mismatch of fibre bundles, waviness or gaps, could help to identify significant defects early to allow for easy rework and prevent the associated wastage of material. This challenge, however, has yet to be met by standard NDE methods. As a solution, this research presents a novel directional eddy current probe for the inline inspection of automated fibre placement (AFP) composites to detect critical manufacturing flaws. The asymmetric transmit-receive coils were developed and tested in four orthogonal configurations, and over a range of frequencies, to evaluate the impact on the detectability of out-of-plane wrinkling. The experimental results show the reliability of sensor configurations with potential for inline monitoring and compare signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) between different probe configurations.
