Heated gripper concept to optimize heat transfer of fiber-reinforced-thermoplastics in automated thermoforming processes

Today composite materials become increasingly more common to use for lightweight applications. This paper introduces a simulation approach for a handling and forming process. This process focusses on the robot based gripping, handling and forming of continuous-fiber-reinforced-thermoplastics, such as organo-sheet. The results of this paper show a manufacturing study of the heat transfer of a temperature-elevated organo-sheet during handling using heated needlegripper. Beside the fabric deformation, this research focuses on the temperature distribution during forming. Fast temperature drops lead to an increasing stiffness of the thermoplastic. Therefore, it is necessary to consider changing material parameters due to the temperature change.