Conference Agenda

The growing need for sustainable mobility and reduced environmental impact in the automotive sector requires a transition from traditional materials to lightweight, high-performance solutions. Compression molding of Carbon Fiber Sheet Molding Compound (CF-SMC) enables the efficient production of complex structural composite components through repeatable and cost-effective manufacturing operations. A critical step in this process is handling the uncured, flexible composite charges prior to the compression stage. Effective handling requires adaptable grippers capable of keeping charge deformation within acceptable limits while accommodating a variety of charge sizes and shapes. Addressing this challenge, this work proposes a methodology to design adaptive grippers used in CF-SMC charge manipulation. The placement of grasping points is driven by the analysis of flexible charge deformation under gravity loads, complemented by a preliminary safety factor assessment. Local grasping points are first grouped into regions and then unified in repetitive patterns, which are used to define the architecture of modular grasping units, whose geometries are derived using Topology Optimization. Developed on an integrated digital platform that combines geometric modeling CAD and Finite Element Analysis (FEA), the proposed workflow systematically guides the designer through each stage of the process. A validation study on an automotive panel demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed methodology.