The fabrication of complex stiffening structures for Aerospace applications with state-of-the-art production technology still requires manual sub-steps during the manufacturing. With regards to increasing production volumes for current and future generation aircraft, automated methods for individual process tasks are required in order to meet high part rates and low part costs. The preforming step during the manufacture of carbon fiber reinforced composite structures is the transformation of a two-dimensional reinforcement fabric into a three-dimensional near-net shape which is subsequently infiltrated with resin material. The final part performance is heavily dependent on potential preform flaws which can develop during the preforming and need to be avoided at all cost. Currently, the double diaphragm forming method is a standard procedure for preforming, which does however suffer from high amounts of manual labor and thus, low part rates and high part costs. This thesis aims to outline an automated process alternative to the common double diaphragm forming method in order to achieve improvements towards cycle time and expenses. This challenge is approached from two different directions, namely a process and a raw material perspective.weiterlesen