Patent ID: 8568549

Claim:
A method for manufacturing a preform for a load path aligned fiber composite structure, comprising the following order of steps: a first step of providing a flat fiber band in a feeding direction; a second step of cutting off a fiber band piece from a free end of the flat fiber band such that the fiber band piece includes a cantilevered free edge of the free end, the cantilevered free edge being a leading edge of the flat fiber band in the feeding direction and being transverse to the feeding direction; a third step of picking up the fiber band piece at a predetermined pickup position by a laying device; a fourth step of placing the fiber band piece at a predefined position; a fifth step of fixing the fiber band piece by a binder material, the second to fourth steps being repeated to place and to fix additional fiber band pieces at other predefined positions, and the third and fourth steps being carried out by a laying head of the laying device, the laying head moving from the at least one pickup position to a first predefined position to place a first fiber band piece and back to the one or to one of several predetermined pickup positions to pick up a second fiber band piece and then to a second predefined position to place the second fiber band piece.