Patent ID: 11478956

Abstract:
A composite article manufacturing facility comprising: a plurality of forming stations (1), each forming station being capable of forming pieces from a feedstock of a laminar reinforcement material; a plurality of lay-up stations (3), each lay-up station being capable of arranging a stack of the formed pieces in overlapping fashion; a transfer mechanism (2) configured to simultaneously transport formed portions from multiple ones of the forming stations towards multiple ones of the lay-up stations; a memory (93) storing a first sequence of pieces to be laid up at a first one of the lay-up stations and a second sequence of pieces to be laid up at a second one of the lay-up stations; and a controller (90) coupled to the forming stations, the lay-up stations and the transfer mechanism for controlling the operations thereof, the controller having access to the memory and being configured to, when a formed piece of the first sequence and a formed piece of the second sequence are loaded on the transfer mechanism, cause the transport mechanism to simultaneously transport them towards the first and second lay-up stations respectively.