Study on negative pressure handling of carbon fiber prepreg

In the handling and transferring process of carbon fiber prepreg during the automatic forming application, the analysis of the sucker’s position and diameter in the negative pressure handling process is often ignored. Given the hanging quality analysis in the handling process, the classical laminate theory is usually used to deal with the prepreg. It is challenging to get the actual simulation results. Based on the constitutive model of fabric, this paper further analyzed the constitutive model suitable for prepreg material and analyzed the handling quality of prepreg material under different sucker diameters and spacing through experiments and simulations to provide a more reasonable sucker size and layout strategy for handling and transferring prepreg material in the automatic forming process. It can be found that the larger the diameter of the sucker, the smaller the maximum overhang, but the more significant the reverse deformation of prepreg at the sucker position. The hanging quality of prepreg will be improved when the distance between suction cups decreases.