Original Date: 05/12/1997
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

Composite-related products include tape-laying systems, fiber placement systems, development parts, production parts, and manufacturing process consulting. Cincinnati Milacron’s initial composite product efforts produced satisfactory performance levels for cost and scheduling problems. Product responsibility was performed through four independent groups: Research and Development; Aerospace; Controls; and Software Products.

To handle composite technology products, Cincinnati Milacron developed the Advanced Composites Technology Business Unit by reorganizing the four groups and incorporating related marketing and customer support. The Advanced Composites Technology Business Unit provided Cincinnati Milacron’s aerospace customer base with a singular point of responsibility for high technology content composite materials manufacturing systems. The unit is also responsible for complete specification, design, installation, and support of research and development.

Improvements in Cincinnati Milacron×s composite product performance have been particularly optimized by its unique fiber placement design system and programming software. The fiber placement system uses solid model surface designs imported directly from the product’s electronic design files using Cincinnati Milacron×s translator. The system then generates a fiber placement path, and the simulated animation checks for fiber path and collision warnings. Further processing steps include post processor, ply bundler, and a communications module. The fiber placement programming software analyzes inherent gaps due to the part’s geometry. Finite element analysis (FEA) can also be performed on the processed model by collecting data from the true fiber placement. The analysis reveals stresses which represent the part’s structural integrity based on the true fiber placement versus theoretical fiber pattern.

Cincinnati Milacron×s Advanced Composites Technology Business Unit has created improvements by reducing the warranty costs to 0.5% of sales, considered the best in the company. Composite machine reliability figures are now measured at 98% availability for three shift operations. The Advanced Composites Technology Business Unit has also improved Cincinnati Milacron’s scheduling, budgets, and reputation. These gains improve customer relationships and increase employee morale.

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