Finnish technology company Addcomposites has launched four free online courses covering composite design and manufacturing, offering 179 video lessons aimed at engineers, technicians and students.
The courses cover Composites Design, Automated Fiber Placement, Filament Winding and Large Format Additive Manufacturing, with lessons designed to explain the processes involved in producing composite parts.
According to Addcomposites, each lesson incorporates a live simulation that asks learners to predict an outcome before demonstrating the result and explaining the underlying mathematics. Each chapter also concludes with a five-question knowledge check.
The Composites Design course contains 41 lessons covering laminate design, material selection, stacking rules, stiffness, strength, failure analysis and manufacturing preparation. It uses AddPly, the company’s browser-based laminate design application, alongside simulations for failure and material draping.
The Automated Fiber Placement course includes 46 lessons addressing machine operation, defects, toolpath planning, inspection, curing and certification. Its content is based on the book Automated Fiber Placement: Status, Challenges, and Evolution by Ramy Harik and Alex Brasington, used with the authors’ permission.
A further 42 lessons cover Filament Winding, including winding patterns, fibre paths, pressure vessel design, machine operation, tension and resin control, and testing.
The Large Format Additive Manufacturing course comprises 50 lessons on producing metre-scale parts and tooling from pellets, covering extrusion, layer bonding, fibre reinforcement, warping, machining and printed tooling.
Learners can access the lessons without creating an account, while free registration allows them to save their progress. Those who pass every chapter in a course receive a certificate with a verifiable serial number.
“We wanted engineers to be able to test their intuition about composites before it costs them a part,” said Pravin Luthada, CEO of Addcomposites.
“Every lesson asks you to predict the outcome, then runs the simulation and shows the maths. Making the courses free means anyone can start straight away,” he said.
Addcomposites said the courses are intended for design and manufacturing engineers, technicians and students. The first chapter of each course is also available on the company’s YouTube channel.
Based in Espoo, Finland, Addcomposites develops automated fibre placement systems, including the AFP-XS and AFP-X, as well as AddPath toolpath software. Its portfolio also includes ADDX, a robotic platform combining large-format polymer extrusion with selective continuous-fibre reinforcement.
The courses are available through the company’s online learning platform.
