Economics of composite material manufacturing equipment

Composite materials are used for products needing high strength-to-weight ratios and good corrosion resistance. For these materials, various composite manufacturing processes have been developed such as Automated Tow Placement, Braiding, Diaphragm Forming, Resin Transfer Molding, Pultrusion, Autoclave Curing and Hand Lay Up. The aim of this paper is to examine the equipment used for these seven processes and to produce a cost analysis for each of the processes equipment. Since many of these processes are relatively new or are fairly costly and specified to the customers need, much of the equipment is custom made to meet the requirements of the part being produced. Current pricing information for individual custom-built machines, as well as standard machinery has been provided here.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2000

Author dc:creator

• Goel, Anjali, 1978-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Timothy Gutowski.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/31096

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/31096