Automated fiber placement (AFP) is widely used to manufacture composite lightweight structures in different industries, including aerospace. Prepreg tackiness plays an important role in the AFP process. This study aims to measure the prepreg tackiness at different AFP processing conditions and predict the optimum parameters for high tackiness levels. Two in-house setups were developed for layup and to measure tackiness. The first setup was designed to simulate the AFP process and precisely control layup speed, compaction force, and temperature. It is used to layup the prepreg under different conditions and with different rollers. The second setup performs a peel-off test to measure the sample’s tackiness. The Taguchi method is applied to optimize the layup process parameters and find the optimal combination for high resultant tackiness. It is also applied to study the effect of the placing roller. Analysis of results shows that prepreg tack is affected by the interaction among the process parameters rather than the individual effect of these parameters. The study shows that the Taguchi method is suitable to solve the stated problem with a minimum number of trials as its results are experimentally validated.

自动纤维铺放（AFP）被广泛用于制造包括航空航天在内的不同行业的复合轻质结构。预浸料的粘性在AFP过程中起着重要的作用。这项研究旨在在不同的AFP加工条件下测量预浸料的粘性，并预测高粘性水平的最佳参数。开发了两种内部设置用于铺叠和测量粘性。第一个设置旨在模拟AFP工艺并精确控制铺网速度，压实力和温度。它用于在不同的条件下和不同的辊子上铺上预浸料。第二种设置执行剥离测试以测量样品的粘性。Taguchi方法用于优化铺层工艺参数，并找到最佳的组合以获得较高的粘性。它也可用于研究放置辊的效果。结果分析表明，预浸料的粘性受工艺参数之间相互作用的影响，而不是受这些参数的单独影响。研究表明，Taguchi方法适合通过最少的试验次数解决上述问题，因为其结果已通过实验验证。