Cadfil Contains a database of Fibre and Resin Materials. For winding program calculation only two parameters are required, the width of the fibre band ( the band width) to determine the path spacing and and the band thickness to calculate the thickness of the winding if required.

The band width is a function of the fibre type  and also of the dispensing system (payout head). The tension and guide system will affect if the fibre spreads into a wide type or if it bunches up like a rope. Based on  the band width and the fibre and resin material properties this band thickness can be calculated. For this reason the user must add there own bandwidth data based on experience with the winding machine type.

The material database allows the user to :

a) Save fibre and resin material data for future use.

b) Set material data for a particular winding and report this information to the NC program file for traceability and to add operator instructions such as which resin to use and the number and type of rovings to use. A description of the material parameter post- processor  logicals can be found in the section on Post-Processor Variables - @@LOGICAL@@.

c) Calculate band thickness.

The material data is containing in and external file  cadfil_material_data.csv  found in the Cadfil system folder (C:\Cadfil\Cadfilxxx ). This is a comma separated value (CSV) file and can be opened and edited in Microsoft Excel or other spread sheet programs. The format and layout should not be changed but the user can add or remove entries as required.

An example of such a CSV file viewed in Excel is show below.

The first two lines are header information and show the units and item description. Currently only the tex , density and bandwidth values are used for calculation the other information is there for reference and for future use.

Category currently must be "Fibre" or "Resin".

 Type is "Carbon", "Glass" , "Aramid" or "Other" for Fibres and "Epoxy", "Polyester" or "Other" for Resins.

The other parameters are standard material parameters that can be found in manufacturers technical data-sheet.

The user can set material data from the Cadfil Main option menu or from the 'Material Properties' button that occurs on various dialogues during program generation. When the set materials options is selected the dialog shown below is displayed.

The Roving type can be changed from  the pull down menu. The Roving description pull down will show all the rovings of the current roving type that are in the database. A roving material can be selected by clicking on it from the pull down menu. The same logic applies to resin type and resin description. The current selections are the ones shown in the dialog and the properties are the current properties that apply to this selection. The material data is fixed in the database the only one that the user can override /change on this screen is the roving width (band-width).

On selecting OK the following screen is shown.

This displays the current selection of materials and the user can set the number of rovings being used for the current winding. It is also possible to set the expect finre volume fraction or fibre mass fraction for the final composite that is expected. The calculate button shown the current band width (roving width x Number of rovings) and the expected can thickness given the specified material properties and fibre fraction. The 'calculate'  is also automatically performed when the screen is exited with the OK option.

Band Width and Band thickness are the only parameters required to calculate a winding program.