Life-Cycle Cost Analysis for Filament Winding of Composite Structures

At the Institute of Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems in the German Aerospace Center facilities in Braunschweig a daily effort is made in the pursue of state-of-the-art lightweight and intelligent structure development. The growing demand for fiber reinforced polymers due to their strength-weight potential means an open door to an unexplored market for the composites manufacturing industry. The available manufacturing methods evolve continuously with the advancing material and process technologies. Therefore vast amplitude of analysis is required to better understand the implications of each new novelty for the industry in terms of environmental emission and manufacturing costs. In this paper the total incurred costs for the manufacturing of composite structures by the filament winding process are evaluated. This process will be integrated in a computer based cost estimation tool to calculate the result and offer the capability to trace the cost source to its category and unit process within the complete manufacturing of a winded component. The comparison between manufacturing scenarios will aid decision makers to select a manufacturing system from the design stage. All approaches are to follow ISO standards in order to achieve an improved transparent performance. A subsequent intention is the reduction of skills for the end user to operate the tool