ABB Robots and Faster Carbon Fibre Composites

From the hand-laid 1953 Corvette body to fibre placement and Helicon's robot composites startup, and where ABB's IRB 6700 and RobotStudio fit in.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/26/20261 min read

The first Chevrolet Corvette, in 1953, had a fibreglass body. Workers laid glass cloth into moulds and brushed on resin by hand, and only 300 cars were built that first year. Boats, car panels and later aircraft parts were made the same way for decades, one sticky layer at a time.

White 1953 Corvette convertible displayed next to a white 2013 Corvette at a car show

A 1953 Chevrolet Corvette, with its fibreglass body, beside a 2013 model. Photo: artistmac / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Aerospace brought in machines for the biggest parts. Automated fibre placement heads lay strips of carbon fibre tape along a mould, many strips side by side, guided by the part's CAD model. Rocket makers such as SpaceX build large carbon composite sections like the Falcon 9 interstage.

Complex fibre placement head with many spools of carbon fibre tape

An automated fibre placement head built by Electroimpact. Photo: Electroimpact / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Smaller parts are still mostly made by hand. On 23 September The Robot Report covered Helicon, a Los Angeles startup that came out of stealth with $16 million in seed funding led by AlleyCorp. It uses AI software and robots to cut composite lead times from six months or more to about two weeks, starting with carbon fibre. The same week, USC's McNair Center installed a robotic fibre placement system from Mikrosam.

Large dark grey composite cylinder on a stand with a worker on a ladder beside it

A carbon composite Falcon 9 interstage in the SpaceX factory. Photo: Steve Jurvetson / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Composite parts are often large and curved, and every one needs the same tool path, which suits an industrial arm. ABB's RobotStudio lets engineers plan and simulate a robot's path from a CAD model before any carbon fibre is cut or laid.

Man at a laptop showing robot software, with an ABB robot cell behind him

An engineer programming an ABB robot cell in RobotStudio. Photo: ABB

After curing, parts need trimming, drilling and sanding. ABB's IRB 6700 handles heavy finishing tools. At Ancofer, a German steel service centre, one grinds flame-cut steel parts in Teqram's EasyGrinder cell, and the same kind of cell could sand composite parts.

Large white ABB IRB 6700 robot arm lifting a flat panel in a factory

An ABB IRB 6700 handling a large panel. Photo: ABB

If Helicon and others get lead times down to weeks, carbon fibre could move beyond race cars and aircraft into things made in small runs, like drone frames. I expect robots to do more of the layup and finishing, while people check each part and decide when a mould needs changing.

ABB robot grinding a steel part with sparks flying in a factory cell

An ABB IRB 6700 grinding flame-cut steel parts in Teqram's EasyGrinder cell at Ancofer, Germany. Photo: ABB

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