Composites creation demands are reaching new sophistication levels every year, and it is becoming clear that the techniques of layup using automated fiber and tape placement are at the forefront of composite technology, while at the same time they are proving their success through their extensive usage in most modern airliners. However, such tools are out of reach for most creators in the middle-end market and research institutes due to their enormous investment requirements. Makidea in collaboration with Mikrosam AD, a leading producer of composites production equipment, intends to change that by introducing its advanced offline composite programming software package called MikroPlace.

MikroPlace provides a sophisticated environment for the composite part designer to be able to create composite structures using automated fiber and tape placement (AFP/ATL) techniques, and at the end, to generate the actual program to be executed on AFP or ATL machines. The part designer can perform most of the necessary steps in developing an advanced composite part right in the MikroPlace environment, by being able to draw or import the part’s tool, create ply laminates from numerous strategies, export the composite for analysis to popular Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software packages, analyze and fix production issues, and do custom post-processing modifications of the final layup.

MikroPlace has been built from the ground-up with the composite designer in mind, to allow the designer maximum flexibility in developing, simulating and producing the final product. It is well known that composite product creation is a challenging and creative process, one that can also yield great results.

The environment has been built around this concept to provide for the inherent iterative process. The core of the software package is built around a robust, industry standard geometric kernel, providing full NURBS support and easy import/export from the leading CAD packages such as CATIA, Pro/ENGINEER, Autodesk Inventor, SolidWorks and others.

Makidea believes that the key to fiber placement production will be productivity and cost-effectiveness.
MikroPlace will increase the productivity of the part designer and the rate of final production by providing an easy to use and intuitive tab-based interface, direct connection of composite information from CATIA’s V5 Composites Part Design (CPD), and sophisticated motion and process algorithms, lowering layup time to the minimum possible within a machine’s dynamic limits.

The cost-effectiveness to our customers comes in the flexibility of choosing what type of modules they need and leaving out the ones they don’t, at the end, providing them with the best price for their requirements.

Makidea’s approach is to continually work with the customer to provide the best solution and help them achieve their own success. We are open to suggestions in improving and introducing features in our MikroPlace product, so do not hesitate to contact us for a consultation or a suggestion.