Literature Review

April 11, 2017

Chapter 1

Effect of Tension & controlling

methods

1.1 Filament/Fiber tension

Tension is another very important factor which decides the mechanical properties of com-

posite parts. According to Hazra, Gu, and TaheriCohen, tension is responsible for ≈ 70%

of the stiffness and strength[1], [2]. So both winding angle and fiber tension are of ex-

treme importance in filament winding process.

There should be some proper value of the tension chosen which ought to be constant

throughout winding process. If tension is less, fibers will be loosely wound causing wrin-

kling. If tension is high, fibers may become damaged and there will be chance of non-

homogeneous compactness[3]. So a tension value should be such that it minimizes the

empty spaces, wrinkling and folds.

In “Selection of optimal processing parameters in filament winding”[4], a study was per-

formed on influence of primary primary processing parameters (i.e. parameters that can

be selected, monitored and controlled by the operator; e.g. the tow tension) on secondary

processing parameters (i.e. parameters that are not directly controllable by the operator,

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e.g. the winding bandwidth) has been reported.

In [5],[6],[7], a study was performed about how to predict physical properties of the

composite parts.

Cohen [2] studied about manufacturing and design variables which effect quality, strength

& stiffness of composite vessels. It was found that composite strength is affected by lam-

inate stacking sequence, winding tension, winding-tension gradient, winding time, and

the interaction between winding-tension gradient and winding time. Increased composite

strength was related to fiber volume in the composite.

But of more concern is to find effect of tension on strength of composite parts made

by filament winding technique. Mertiny and Ellyin,2002 [8] studied the effect of tension

on performance of pressurized tubular components. He studied the effect of tow tension

on fiber volume fraction & effective wall thickness. Varying tension, keeping the angle

fixed at 60o , he studied the mechanical properties of composite materials.

Mertiny and Ellyin,2002, did the experimental investigation the influence of the ap-

plied tow tension during filament winding on the physical and mechanical properties

of glass-fibre reinforced polymeric composite tubulars. He fixed the winding angle and

manufactured specimens using different winding tensions, and mechanical testing was

done using different loading ratios. Some conclusions he made are[8]:

• As tow tension is directly proportional to fiber compaction so winding tension is a

suitable parameter for controlling fiber volume fracation.

• Structural failure stress is dependent on fiber winding tension.

• A comparison between low and high tension wound parts shows properties don’t

follow a single directional trend. If its fiber dominated loading, increase in fiber

tension affects strength, whereas in matrix dominated loading, small decrease in

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 failure strength occurs if fiber compaction is incresed.

1.2 Tension Control Methods

As the importance of tension is depicted in the section 1.1, hence tension control is a

special area of research in the field of composites. Industrial machines of larger scale use

expensive controllers for greater reliability but research is also being done in finding a

cheap tension control method for small scale filament winding machines. Over the time,

many researchers have developed different methods for fiber tension control, below are a

few of them.

Generally, three types of tension control methods are used:

1.2.1 Mechanical method

Mechanical methods are the oldest for controlling tension. Usually they consist of a

row of pulleys, with torsion springs or a metallic arm with a damper and a spring

connected to a pulley which keeps fiber tight.

1.2.2 Electrical method

In these methods, a motor or a linear actuator is used to create tension in the fibers.

They may use PID or Fuzzy logic controllers implemented via FPGA chips, PLC’s

or microcontrollers. These methods are used conventionally in industrial machines

as they have good result than mechanical methods and also cheaper as compared to

Computerized/Numeric controlled systems.

1.2.3 Computerized control

These control methods are new in the field of research, they employ Numeric control

control or CNC techniques are applied, but as expected, these are complex and are found

in machines where extreme accuracy is desired.

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 Figure 1.1: Tension control system used by Sharon and Lin,2001

1.2.4 Combination

Usually in traditional composite filament winding machines, a combination of above listed

methods is used, nip roller mechanism, actuator plate and tension arm with torsional

spring are commonly used methods in industrial machines.

1.2.5 General review of different methods

Sharon and Lin,[9], designed a fully automated fiber optic winding machine integrating

active tension control with automatic error detection and correction1 . Conventionally

used tension control systems incorporate stationery pulley system. For fine tension con-

trol, he separated the inertia of fiber spool and tension mechanism. A servo controlled

tenison arm has been designed, as shown in Fig.1.1 and simulated results have been ver-

ified with experiment. Vision based automatic error detection plus correction, made this

system very accurate.

Another tension system was proposed by Choi, Cheong, and Kim,1997, shown in Fig.1.2,

which employed use of a electro-rheological brake actuator alongwith sliding mode feed-

back controller. By applying electric fields to arabic gum based ER fluid, static yield
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Vision based.

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 Figure 1.2: ER brake actuator tension system

stresses were obtained. It was found that this type of ER based tension control is very

robust to strong external disturbance[10].

Then another concept of a spring-damper arm tenisoner [11] was devised by Yeung,

Falkner, and Gergely, shown in Fig.1.3 improving it further by implementing fuzzy logic

controller. The concept was to introduce an idler pulley for causing tension. Angle of

tension arm was used as a feedback and accordingly ac motor speed was controlled using

triac.

Figure 1.3: Spring Damper tension arm method

Imamura, Kuroiwa, Terashima, et al. proposed nip roller type tension control system

[12] as shown in Fig.1.4, using two approaches, I st being implementation of PID & I-PD

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control and 2nd being controlling velocity of nip roller to cause a difference of velocities

between mandrel and nip roller. The main idea is to cause friction in filament by intro-

ducing difference in velocities so as to keep the strand stiff.

Figure 1.4: NIP roller mechanism

Akkus, Genc, and Girgin devised a system for simulation of effect of tension. Tension sys-

tem consisted of magnetic break, servo motor, a PID control unit, a load cell

and a data converter[13]. Load cell measured tension and value was compared to

present value to keep tension in a certin range. Such a tension system is shown in Fig.1.5.

Figure 1.5: ”Pretension system proposed by Akkus, Genc, and Girgin

REN, Hua, WANG, et al. used PLC based system[14], it included torque and velocity

feedback along with radius following device to compensate for the radius of scroll.

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 Figure 1.6: Actuator based tension system

Figure 1.7: Pendulum rod tension control system

Linear actuator based system for tension control was used by Hazra, Gu, and Taheri[1],

along with implementation of PI and fuzzy controllers. VFD was used to control speed

of induction motor rotating mandrel. Such an actuation based tension system is shown

in Fig.1.6.

Among the industrial machines, Ren, Lai, Wang, et al. introduced a feedback control

system using plc as main controller and industrial control computer as upper host.

Novelty is in use of air cylinder as actuator[15] with a pendulum bar for causing tension,

angle sensor was used to sense the feedback. Fig.1.7 shows such a system, the air cylinder

controls tilt angle of tension bar (pendulum bar), angle of tilt is fedback.

For small scale cheap filement winding machines, Mutasher, Mir-Nasiri, and Lin de-

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 Figure 1.8: Simple two pulley system used by Mutasher, Mir-Nasiri, and Lin

vised a simple system consisting of just two pulleys and a torsion spring[16]. Spring

constant of spring was found by relation between θ and torque. Fig. 1.8 shows such a sys-

tem. The cylinder has actually torsion spring encapsulated inside it and filament passes

over two pulleys in a zig-zag manner. Conceptually this is same as dancing tensioner arm

used by Yeung, Falkner, and Gergely. As seen, there’s no close loop control as no force

sensors have been used yet the result is satisfactory keeping in mind that its a small scale

machine.

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Bibliography

[1] T. Hazra, J. Gu, and F. Taheri, “An innovative cost effective approach towards ten-

sion control in automated filament winding composite manufacturing”, in Mecha-

tronics and Automation (ICMA), 2011 International Conference on, IEEE, 2011,

pp. 961–966.

[2] D. Cohen, “Influence of filament winding parameters on composite vessel quality

and strength”, Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, vol. 28,

no. 12, pp. 1035–1047, 1997.

[3] W. Polini and L. Sorrentino, “Influence of winding speed and winding trajectory

on tension in robotized filament winding of full section parts”, Composites science

and technology, vol. 65, no. 10, pp. 1574–1581, 2005.

[4] P. Mertiny and F. Ellyin, “Selection of optimal processing parameters in filament

winding”, in International SAMPE Technical Conference, vol. 33, 2001, pp. 1084–

1095.

[5] S.-Y. Lee and G. S. Springer, “Filament winding cylinders i. process model”, Journal

of composite materials, vol. 24, no. 12, pp. 1270–1298, 1990.

[6] E. P. Calius, S.-Y. Lee, and G. S. Springer, “Filament winding cylinders: Ii. valida-

tion of the process model”, Journal of composite materials, vol. 24, no. 12, pp. 1299–

1343, 1990.

[7] S.-Y. Lee and G. S. Springer, “Filament winding cylinders”, Journal of Composite

Materials, vol. 24, no. 12, pp. 1270–1298, 1990. doi: 10.1177/002199839002401202.

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 eprint: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002199839002401202. [Online]. Available:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002199839002401202.

[8] P. Mertiny and F. Ellyin, “Influence of the filament winding tension on physical

and mechanical properties of reinforced composites”, Composites Part A: Applied

Science and Manufacturing, vol. 33, no. 12, pp. 1615–1622, 2002.

[9] A. Sharon and S. Lin, “Development of an automated fiber optic winding ma-

chine for gyroscope production”, Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing,

vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 223–231, 2001.

[10] S. Choi, C. C. Cheong, and G. Kim, “Feedback control of tension in a moving tape

using an er brake actuator”, Mechatronics, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 53–66, 1997.

[11] M. Yeung, A. Falkner, and S. Gergely, “The control of tension in textile filament

winding”, Mechatronics, vol. 5, no. 2-3, pp. 117–131, 1995.

[12] T. Imamura, T. Kuroiwa, K. Terashima, and H. Takemoto, “Design and tension

control of filament winding system”, in Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 1999. IEEE

SMC’99 Conference Proceedings. 1999 IEEE International Conference on, Ieee,

vol. 2, 1999, pp. 660–670.

[13] N. Akkus, G. Genc, and C. Girgin, “Control of the pretension in filament winding

process”, acta mechanica et automatica, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 5–10, 2008.

[14] S.-l. REN, L. Hua, Y.-z. WANG, and H.-y. FU, “Development of plc-based tension

control system”, Chinese Journal of Aeronautics, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 266–271, 2007.

[15] S. Ren, Y. Lai, Y. Wang, and H. Lu, “A new fiber winding precision tension control

system”, in Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Automation and

Logistics, 2009, pp. 5–7.

[16] S. Mutasher, N. Mir-Nasiri, and L. C. Lin, “Small-scale filament winding machine

for producing fiber composite products”, Journal of Engineering Science and Tech-

nology, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 156–168, 2012.

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