Patent ID: 11919256
Assignee: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
Field: Other special machines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 0:
1. A manufacturing system for manufacturing a backed cross-ply prepreg, comprising:
a cutting machine having a cutting station configured to cut a continuous length of a unidirectional prepreg into prepreg segments, each having an opposing pair of segment cut edges that are non-parallel to a lengthwise direction of the unidirectional prepreg;
an adhesion machine having a conveyor belt and an adhesion station;
a pick-and-place system configured to vertically lift the prepreg segments off the cutting machine, rotate the prepreg segments into an orientation such that the segment cut edges are generally parallel to a lengthwise direction of the conveyor belt, and vertically lower the prepreg segments in end-to-end relation onto the conveyor belt; and
wherein the conveyor belt is configured to feed the prepreg segments to the adhesion station, the adhesion station configured to adhere the prepreg segments to a continuous length of a backing material, thereby transferring the prepreg segments from the conveyor belt to the backing material, and resulting in a continuous length of a backed cross-ply prepreg.