Case study: carbon fiber gantry beam manufactured by combining pultrusion and prepreg draping
Date: 2006 – 20XX
Project status: on production
Quantity: small series
To produce these gantries for an electronic component manufacturing machine for a Japanese customer, 100 x 100 x 4.25 mm square tubes manufactured by the kilometer in our pultrusion workshops and taken from our standard catalog were assembled by draping prepreg to create 3-meter-long beams, with between 2 and 6 tubes per beam, depending on the rigidity required.
A specific surface coating was applied to meet customer specifications (ease of cleaning, chemical resistance, aesthetics, etc.).
Specific metal end end fittings were designed, machined and bonded to ensure the interface with the machine, while meeting the operations environmental requirements.
The use of pultrusion reduced costs by 40% compared with a traditional composite beam made entirely with filament winding or prepregs, by limiting tooling costs, material costs and labor time.
The use of standard tubes from our own stock also enabled us to reduce production times by greatly reducing the number of operations and tooling required.
See the carbon machine beams product page for more information.
