Technology

Basic filament winding machines have two axes of motion, the mandrel rotation and the carriage travel.

The various axes of movement are shown below:

X-AXIS

Y-AXIS

Z-AXIS

U-AXIS

V-AXIS

W-AXIS

For Pipe production:
Two axes machines are sufficient. The Axes used are as below:

• Mandrel rotation axis (X-Axis)
• Carriage travel axis (Y-Axis)

For dome end vessels:

It is advisable and recommended to have a four axes winding machine for products such as CNG, LPG, Low Pressure water filters, etc. The various axes for Dome ended components are as below:

• Mandrel rotation (X-Axis)
• Carriage travel (Y-Axis)
• Radial cross feed (Z-Axis)
• Rotating fibre payout head (U-Axis)

The payout head rotation is used to keep the fiber band from twisting and bunching up. This ensures flat and consistent layup of the fiber during winding. Machines with more than four axes can be used for advanced applications. Six axes winding machines usually have 3 linear and 3 rotation axes.

Machines with more than 2 axes of motion have computer/CNC control. However, two axes machines mostly have numeric control. Computer controlled filament winding machines require the use of software to generate the winding patterns and machine paths. Such software can be provided by filament winding machine manufacturers or by using independent programming sources.

Methodology :

Within a single fiberglass roving, there are microscopic strands. Each strand is coated with a sizing that provides a secondary bonding between the fiberglass strand and the resin. Sizing can be singular resin system compatible, like polyester compatible or epoxy compatible or multi-system compatible, like polyester+epoxy+polyurethane.

The continuous fiberglass rovings pass through a Resin bath where they get coated with a resin or epoxy mix.

Primary material components of filament winding:

• Fiber: Various types of fibres are used depending on application
  Glass, Carbon, Aramid, Basalt, Boron, Jute, etc
• Resin: Various types of fibres are used depending on application
  Epoxy, Polyester, Vinyl Ester, Isophthalic
• Tooling: Tooling comprises of mandrels or moulds on which the fibres are laid, cured and subsequently extracted.
  The Moulds or tooling can be of steel or fibre glass, inflatable rubber, plastic liners, sand mandrels, wooden mandrels etc.
• Process equipment consists of :
  Curing stations for curing, Mandrel Rotators for preparation, Hydraulic extractors for component extraction, etc
• Winding software: CNC Technics is tied up with CRESCENT TECHNOLOGIES, UK for using CADFIL Software with their filament winders. CADFIL is a sophisticated filament winding software which comes with different modules for various applications. Support for this software is supplied by both CRESCENT as well as CNC Technics and is fully compatible with SIEMENS control systems.