Free course · 46 lessons · 8 chapters
Automated Fiber Placement, from the tow up.
How AFP really works: the machine, the defects, path planning, inspection, cure and certification. Every lesson runs a real simulation, shows the maths, and stops to ask you a question.
Built on Automated Fiber Placement: Status, Challenges, and Evolution by Ramy Harik & Alex Brasington, SAE International, with the authors' permission.
Lay the next ply
How every lesson works
Watch, predict, check.
One idea per lesson, built from animation and live simulation. No stock footage, no slides read aloud.
A simulation runs while the maths builds beside it, like the edge strain w/2R of a steered tow.
Every lesson pauses to ask what you think happens next, then shows you.
A short knowledge check at the end of each chapter, drawn from the lessons.
Pass all eight chapter checks for a certificate with a verifiable serial.
Curriculum
Eight chapters, one thread.
From a tape sliced into ribbons to the closed-loop factory. Open a chapter for its overview and lessons.
Free learner sign-up
Save your progress.
Keep your place across devices, get the chapter checks and your certificate when they launch, and hear when new courses open: filament winding has started, and large-format 3D printing is next. No password. Nothing is gated: every lesson stays free.
The book behind the course
The lessons explain it. The book has the depth.
Ramy Harik & Alex Brasington wrote the reference on automated fiber placement. The course follows its eight chapters and points back to it in every lesson.
Feedback
Tell us what to fix.
Every lesson page has its own feedback box. This one is for the course as a whole.
Questions
Before you start.
Is it free?
Yes. Every lesson is free, with no account. Chapter checks and a certificate are coming soon.
Do I need the book?
Highly recommended. It is a well-illustrated book with the full derivations, figures and references behind every lesson, though each lesson also stands on its own. Purchase the book from SAE.
Who made this?
Addcomposites, the company behind the AFP-XS head and AddPath planning software, with the authors' permission. Simulations are our own and marked illustrative where the numbers are invented.
What background do I need?
High-school maths is enough to follow. An optional primer on laminates and the ABD matrix comes later.