Catalysium on OTOM’s AFP Digital Twin
“What if you could see what happens during AFP before the machine even starts running?” That is the question Catalysium asked after a lunchtime conversation with OTOM founder Amin Z.
In Automated Fiber Placement, a large part of process development and validation still happens on the machine: lay a part, measure it, adjust parameters, lay it again. That costs machine time, material and iterations. OTOM’s AFP Digital Twin moves part of this work into the virtual world. As Catalysium summarised, the platform can:
- Simulate the layup course by course and tow by tow
- Model laser interaction with the material
- Compare simulations with thermal-camera measurements
- Let engineers talk to the simulation in natural language through an AI agent
The broader ambition is to bring Design for Manufacturability closer to the design stage, rather than discovering manufacturing constraints once a programme reaches the AFP machine. Catalysium hinted that a discussion on The Composites Catalyst may follow. Stay tuned.
A test version is free, with no registration required: otomcomposite.eu/AFP_Demo
Read Catalysium’s original post on LinkedIn.