Airborne launches Automated Ply Placement for Thermoset Prepreg
Airborne’s Automated Ply Placement technology is now available for Thermoset Prepreg materials. It tackles the challenge of removing the backing paper or protective foil with an array of strategies, which can be mixed and optimised for use case. Automated Ply Placement is a flexible and fast process to create freeshape, multi-material tailored blank laminates and is ideally suited for high-rate manufacturing of advanced composites.

The Automated Ply Placement system (APP) cuts the composite material into the right ply shapes, inspects for quality and places the ply with high accuracy to create the laminate. For thermoset prepreg materials, one crucial step is the removal of the backing paper / foil. The system can use several strategies.
The most efficient way is to remove the backer during cutting, by using a naked prepreg or kiss-cut. For naked prepreg, a dedicated belt material is used to prevent contamination or sticking. With kiss-cut, only the composite layer is cut into shape, and the APP system removes the composite ply from the backer below during pick-up. Once picked, the ply is inspected and placed into the laminate.
When buffering is needed, one backer is lef on the ply to enable robust stacking in the buffer. When the ply is needed, it’s retrieved from the buffer, backer is removed by a proprietary technology, inspected and placed.
How APP for prepreg can help meet your challenges
- Have full design freedom in defining your laminates. You can create any freeform shape, add ply drop-offs, use local patches, make the laminate lighter by adding holes, combine materials for optimal performance versus cost balance
- Use any material format: UD tape, fabric, non-woven, recycled, core, film, metal layer, sheets
- Enable high-rate manufacturing by using an industrial 2-step strategy: Manufacture the 2D blank at high speed, process into 3D in 1 step using methods such hot drape forming, double diaphragm forming, press forming, prepreg compression moulding
- Ideally suited to use with fast-curing prepreg materials
- Easy integration into the next process steps
- Super flexible, no programming required
- Full digital quality control
- Reduced footprint in your expensive clean room: cutting and layup is integrated, which reduces floorspace and eliminates the logistic challenge of transport all plies into the factory.