Composite Filament Winding

Starting in summer 2019, I began programming and upgrading a filament winder to make fiberglass body tubes and nose cones. I wrote software to enable the winding of any parametric shape, and successfully demonstrated the viability of my system with a supersonic test vehicle, nick-named Speed Demon in the spring of 2020.

Mechanics

IMG_20190623_140108

IMG_20191014_123813

IMG_20190715_203147

IMG_20190623_140108

1/11

The Filament Winder is based on the X-Winder with upgrades I have performed to increase the capabilities. The largest upgrade performed included allowing up to eight fiberglass filaments to be wound down simultaneously.

The design uses two main axes, a rotational and a linear axis to wind on a mandrel.

Electronics

To increase the capabilities of the winder, I replaced the standard controller with a salvaged 3D Printer controller that interpreted direct GCode.

To create the GCode commands that would run on the controller, I wrote a program in Python to generate the winding patterns. This program is can generate winding patterns for any concave parametric shape, including body tubes, nose cones, and transitions.

IMG_20190623_140108

IMG_20190623_143434

IMG_20190715_203147(2)

IMG_20190623_140108

1/9

Testing & Validation

After creating and running several test tubes through the winder, I decided to test the quality and capabilities of the winded objects. To do this, I design, constructed, and built a supersonic test rocket, Speed Demon, built solely from tubes and nosecones wound on this winder. This rocket has been launched twice, achieving a max velocity of mach 0.98 (close, but not quite mach 1), validating the strength and capabilities of the modified winder.

IMG_20200201_165216

IMG_20191116_011540(2)

IMG_20190715_203147(2)

IMG_20200201_165216

1/4

Skills Demonstrated

Mechanical Design
Solidworks
GCode
CAM
Manufacturing (Manual & Water-jet Cutting)
Programming (Python)
Control Hardware