Sensor-based leakage detection in vacuum bagging

A majority of aircraft components are nowadays manufactured using autoclave processing. Essential for the quality of the component is the realization of an airtight vacuum bag on top of the component to be cured. Several ways of leakage detection methods are actually used in industrial processes. They will be dealt with in this paper. A special focus is put on a new approach using flow meters for monitoring the air flow during evacuation and curing. This approach has been successfully validated in different trials, which are presented and discussed. The main benefit of the method is that in case of a leakage, a defined limit is exceeded by the volumetric flow rate whose magnitude can be directly correlated to the leakage’s size and position. In addition, the potential of this method for the localization of leakages has been investigated and is discussed