Mould design for manufacturing of isogrid structures in composite material

In the transport industry, fuel consumption and emissions can be reduced introducing very light parts. An optimal solution to these problems consists in the construction of isogrid structures made of composite materials, whose manufacturing process is a critical step, since it can induce some damages that cause the rejection of the produced part. The forming technology, the necessary equipment and the process parameters must be carefully chosen, since they strongly affect the part quality. The mould shape has to be carefully designed since the part presents a complex geometry, due to the presence of ribs, that could present a bad compaction. The aim of this work is to introduce and verify through structural tests a design methodology for the manufacturing of isogrid structures made of composite materials. In particular, the mould groove geometry was defined in order to obtain the right compaction degree. Then, different experimental tests were carried out to determine the quality of the produced structures.