44 AEROSPACEMANUFACTURING
INDUSTRY I ROUND-UP
Cutting fabrication times
The installation of a Unison all-electric tube bending machine is
helping Senior Aerospace SSP in the US to dramatically reduce
cycle-time and improve efficiencies for fabricating aircraft duct
components with complex shapes. Tubular parts with multiple
bends are now fabricated in a single machine stage, eliminating a
manually-controlled hydraulic bending process that could take a
week or more.
Senior Aerospace SSP makes ducting components for many
of the world’s leading aircraft manufacturers, for applications
such as engine exhaust gas recirculation, de-icing systems, and
air conditioning. Most of the tubing parts are fabricated in small
batches from exotic materials such as 625 and 718 Inconel, and
titanium.
“As well as eliminating intermediate cleaning processes,” says valuable role in improving the productivity and flexibility of one of
Thomas Marshall, Manufacturing Engineer at Senior Aerospace our key component production processes.”
SSP in Burbank, California, “the Unison machine is playing a www.unisonltd.com
400% productivity improvement
Cleaning up on cost
Challenged with improving productivity
in rough machining operations of By switching to an HFE solvent supplied by Acota, Smiths
aero-engine components, engineers at Aerospace has been able to reduce substantially the costs
Sandvik Coromant have applied the new associated with cleaning and degreasing the many different
CC6060 ceramic grade to great effect. aeronautical instruments produced at its Cheltenham, UK
Face milling the notoriously difficult facility.
Inconel 718 material, used in the The site designs and manufactures components and systems,
manufacture of highly stressed engine including mechanical instrumentation. Mark Salisbury,
casings, the Coromant grade CC6060 Manufacturing Engineer at Smiths Aerospace, explains:: “We
reduced the cycle time on the single are manufacturing around 35 different instruments, each one
component feature by approximately of which may have as many as 200 different parts.” Many of
97%. This equates to an annual cost the components involved are very delicate and need careful
saving of €25,098 on the anticipated throughput of casing preparation prior to finishing, such as spraying and screen
components (against a competitor’s coated carbide grade using printing.
the customer’s hourly machine cost rate). After Smiths Aerospace made the decision to move from
The new Sialon grade CC6060 is optimised to deliver trichloroethylene (Trike) to more environmentally-sound HFCs,
higher productivity when machining in dry conditions and Acota suggested 3M’s Novec HFE-72DE fluid as an alternative
has excellent notch wear resistance. A demonstration of its that could provide significant costs savings without sacrificing
capabilities was carried out for a leading aerospace component performance. “In addition to being cheaper to buy,” explains
manufacturer, the tool holder was changed to the latest Mr Salisbury, “there are fewer losses due to evaporation or the
Coromant Capto integrated ceramic face milling cutter fluid getting trapped in the product.”
fitted with 12mm diameter CC6060 inserts. Consequently, Another benefit has been less need to change the cleaning
it was possible to increase the cutting speed to 1000 m/min machine, apart from raising the boiling point from 38 to 42ºC,
(previously 25m/min) while pushing the feed rate to 1512mm/ which also contributes to improved performance. “We are also
mm (previously 55mm/mm). able to continue recycling the dirty solvent using our solvent
Much of the initial testing prior to the on-machine reclamation plant. This will reclaim up to 95% of dirty solvent
comparison at the customer’s premises took place under so that it can be used again, which saves on the purchase of
independent analysis at the Advanced Manufacturing Research replacement solvent and also saves on the disposal costs and
Centre (AMRC) in Sheffield, UK. any impact on the environment,” concludes Mr Salisbury.
www.coromant.sandvik.com www.acota.co.uk
AM_jul07_p42-44_roundup.indd 44 29/6/07 11:54:01
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