C. G. Grant, Aerospace Composites Consulting, Sandy, UT

Summary:

Automated Tape Layers (ATL) are one of the original automated processing methods developed for composite aircraft structure. Development of the ATL process and equipment began in the late 1960’s and the first commercial machines were available by the late 1970’s. Tape Layers were used primarily on military programs during the 1980’s as composite materials had not yet been used extensively for commercial aircraft primary structure. Interest in ATL declined in the 1990’s due to the lack of good applications and industry attention being focused on resin transfer molding (RTM) and fiber placement (FP) processes.

As composite materials usage on commercial aircraft primary structure has dramatically increased in the last few years, ATL has re-emerged as a widely used process in the aircraft industry. Automated tape layers have excellent material lay up rates and companies who use these machines have discovered a variety of ways to take advantage of that capability. ATL is no longer a process just for horizontal stabilizer skins … it can be used for a variety of parts.

This paper discusses the latest ATL technology, how these machines are being used on new aircraft programs, and some perspectives on the future of ATL processing technology.