Process optimized tools lower manufacturing costs

Manufacturing economically

Premium Aerotec has become one of the largest suppliers of CFRP aircraft fuselage components.

The company is part of the Airbus group and is a significant contributor to the development and manufacture of the A350 XWB at its Augsburg location. The company also delivers CFRP components for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the Eurofighter and the A400M.

The A350 XWB is the first aircraft in service to be mainly manufactured with carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP). Premium Aerotec manufactures several components of the A350 XWB in Augsburg including the side shells of the rear fuselage (section 16/18), the floor structure and the pressure bulkhead.

The CFRP specialists rely on the very best materials when manufacturing the components. The amount of fibre is approx. 55 to 70%. Matrix systems based on Duroplast and Thermoplast are used. All components must be reworked after hardening. The machining of the CFRP components has to respect the Airbus and aviation standards for shaping the edges. This means zero defects in terms of delamination, fibre projections and chipping. The surface roughness is defined as less than 3.2 µm.

Because of the stringent quality requirements and the high cost of the semi-finished parts currently most components are scrubbed and then smoothed in a two-step process. Consequently the CFRP specialist’s production engineers looked for a tool with a geometry capable of eliminating any form of delamination, chipping or fibre projections. The tool also had to be able to work on composite materials with glass layers and copper mesh. And it had to scrub and smooth the components in a single pass without degrading the surface finish (RA less than 3.2 µm).

Scrubbing and smoothing in a single process
No tools with these specifications were available on the market when Hufschmied Engineering received the request. At this point, Hufschmied’s tool experts started development work, making a series of experiments for several months before coming up with a new generation of tools called T-Rex. Its special feature is its variable cut geometry combining the advantages of router geometry with the delamination-free, cutting quality of a compression tool. As a result T-Rex tools are highly resistant to abrasion and have a long service life. By combining scrubbing and smoothing into one process step, production speed increases dramatically and at the same time they process the edges in rework-free quality.

T-Rex tools have far exceeded the minimum requirement in terms of service life and they have met or surpassed all the quality criteria. By eliminating the second pass, processing costs were reduced by 30%, production capacity on the machine was increased by 40%. Hufschmied Engineering is now testing further optimization of the geometry and coating based on use-wear analysis.

Hufschmied Zerspanungssysteme GmbH
www.hufschmied.net

CFRP fuselage shell manufactured by Premium Aerotec
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