May 7, 2019

What suppliers are doing to ensure product quality and safety By Mark Shortt, Design-2-Part Magazine Talk to any qualified supplier of aerospace parts and they will likely tell you the same thing: Quality needs to be the top priority for manufacturing. All stakeholders—from prime contractors to tier-3 suppliers, contract manufacturers, and job shops—know it because the safety of aircraft passengers depends on it. But today, jet makers are working to solve an engineering and manufacturing riddle that goes something like this: “How do you achieve the highest quality requirements when aircraft materials, parts, and production processes are now more complex, and more challenging, than ever?” Monitoring and Controlling the Process Aero Gear (www.aerogear.com) manufactures precision gears and gearbox assemblies used by aerospace giants like Pratt & Whitney, Sikorsky, Boeing, and General Electric. Last June, the company completed a 24,000-square-foot addition to its facility that Aero Gear President Doug Rose said was necessary to keep pace with the industry’s robust demand for jet engines, the primary application for its parts and assemblies. The addition increased Aero Gear’s total space to approximately 100,000 square feet, which includes manufacturing space for several new programs. “We’re a small company, but we have a big impact on the industry because our gears out there flying in commercial and military aircraft, in thousands of planes a day,” Rose said in an interview at Aero Gear’s facility in Windsor, Connecticut. “We started out as just a local shop making parts for companies like Pratt & Whitney, and then, as globalization came about, we embraced it and went looking for opportunities. Now, we do 30 percent of our work internationally, exporting.” Rose said that Aero Gear ensures the highest quality of its parts by carefully controlling and monitoring its processes. A quality control person is embedded in each manufacturing cell to make sure the process is consistently producing good parts, and to document that the parts are free of defects. It’s a far cry, he said, from the old school practice of waiting until all the parts have been machined before inspecting them at the end of the process. To help make the inspection process less manually intensive, the company invested in white...

Feb 12, 2018

“How Do You Optimize the Structure of the World’s Largest All-Composite Aircraft?” Featured in Design-2-Part Magazine Manufacturers of the Stratolaunch air-launch platform used Collier Research’s automated sizing and analysis software to inform laminate design and production, optimize the fuselage and wing structure, and reduce weight. NEWPORT NEWS, Va.—When the Stratolaunch aircraft rolled out of the Mojave, California Air and Space Port hangar last spring in preparation for ground testing, it was a clear example of how far the design and manufacturing of composite materials have progressed in recent years. In September, the first phase of engine testing on the aircraft’s six Pratt & Whitney turbofan engines was completed.   The world’s largest aircraft by wingspan (wider than a football field is long) is almost entirely fabricated from composite materials, which provide light weight, high stiffness, and strength characteristics that are increasingly in demand in aerospace, automotive, sports, medical, and industrial fields. But when you’re building the world’s largest all-composite aircraft, how do you know it can carry the load? One option is to test the materials using HyperSizer, a computer-aided engineering (CAE) software product from  Collier Research Corporation. The simulation software has already been used to test materials used in Bell’s V280 helicopter, the NASA Orion crew module, the Ares 1, the Ares 5, and many commercial rockets across the globe. And recently, engineers used HyperSizer to simulate, analyze, and optimize the composite structures that make up most of the Stratolaunch aircraft. Stratolaunch (www.stratolaunch.com) is the brainchild of Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder, and Burt Rutan, the noted aircraft designer who founded Scaled Composites. It is a 238-foot-long jet aircraft with two fuselages that are connected by a giant single wing. Designed to serve as a mobile launch pad for carrier rockets, Stratolaunch is powered by six engines that will enable it to take off from a runway carrying a payload of up to 550,000 pounds.  The plan is to fly to 35,000 feet, the cruising altitude of a commercial airliner, and release the launch vehicle’s payload, and then return to the airport for reuse. It is expected to operate in 2019. Collier Research’s HyperSizer optimization software was used extensively by Stratolaunch manufacturer Scaled Composites...

Oct 24, 2016

By Wired Building something as large as a 737 wing takes an even bigger machine. Boeing’s Panel Assembly Line (PAL) is the 60 ton, 20 feet tall, friendly robot that always lends a rather large hand.      ...

Sep 21, 2016

“Stratasys launches two new 3D printers, partners with Boeing and Ford on applications” By Alison DeNisco, TechRepublic Two new 3D printers from Stratasys could revolutionize aerospace and automobile manufacturing, the company announced Wednesday. The machines represent the next step in large-scale 3D printing for manufacturing, which experts say will completely change the field in the next decade. The Infinite-Build 3D Demonstrator and the Robotic Composite 3D Demonstrator expand the company’s Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology across manufacturing to more efficiently build bigger, stronger, higher-quality parts. Stratasys also partnered with Boeing to define the requirements and specifications for the Infinite-Build to meet their needs for customized flight parts. Ford Motor Company is also exploring the machine’s abilities for car manufacturing, Stratasys announced. Both the aerospace and automobile industries face pressure to continue to innovate and evolve—not only in performance, but in time to market, said Scott Sevcik, director of manufacturing platform development at Stratasys. Industry leaders are considering how to gain a competitive edge by offering a more differentiated passenger experience, whether in flight or on the road. “These industries are looking strongly toward 3D printing as a critical enabler to meet those needs going forward,” Sevcik said. “It offers the freedom of design, to be able to create parts that you could not make before with traditional processes.” The new machines further Stratasys’ efforts in large-scale manufacturing with 3D printing. In June, the company announced a partnership with Toyota division Daihatsu, offering 10 different 3D printed designs and patterns that owners can customize for the Copen two-door convertible. While 3D printing has been used on a small scale for race car parts in the past, these projects represent the industry’s first move into more mainstream auto manufacturing. Rise of 3D printing manufacturing The adoption of industrial 3D printing continues to grow, with global spending on printers reaching nearly $11 billion in 2015. Spending is predicted to rise to about $27 billion by 2019, according toInternational Data Corporation. About two-thirds of US manufacturers are currently adopting 3D printing in some way, an April PricewaterhouseCoopers report found—roughly the same number as did in 2014. However, 51% are using it for prototyping and final products, compared to...

Jul 25, 2016

“Getting ready for smart manufacturing within the aerospace industry” By Paul Simon, Managing Director, ConsultEP Airbus and Boeing are pushing their supply chain to heroic efforts by ramping up production rates, whilst driving cost down, on existing and new aircrafts. This huge industrial challenge already has caused delays due to the numerous backward-looking supply chain management approaches being used: Wiring problems delayed the Airbus A380 supper-jumbo; Outsourcing snared Boeing’s 787 long-haul aircraft; Software bedevilled the Airbus A400M military transporter; Software glitches and slow engine start associated with P&W engine set back the deliveries of A320neos; Deliveries of A350 were impeded by late arrivals of lavatories and business seats from Zodiac Aerospace factories in the US. As a consequence, the aerospace industry has began the race to achieve a dramatic improvement in cost efficiency and operational effectiveness by implementing Industrial 4.0 / Smart factories. Since the Industrial Revolution, there have been five distinct waves of innovation, called Kondratieff waves, each of which began with disruptive new technologies and ended with global depression. The 4th and 5th waves, corresponding to the 3rd Industrial Revolution from 1970 to 2010, brought the explosion in machine technologies in our factories. In 1975, for the first time, we introduced computer technology on the shop floor in the form of Numerically Controlled (NC) equipment. Even before this technology was widespread, in 1980, we launched the next generation, Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) and Direct Numerically Controlled (DNC) equipments, which were interlinked and controlled from a single computer. By 1985, we started using Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS), which are capable of handling small lot production and rapidly changing product design. We are now on the cusp of the 4th Indutrial Revolution, which corresponds to the sixth Kondratieff wave. Within the aerospace industry, innovations in new composite material technology, Additive Manufacturing technology, Cyber-Physical systems, Internet Of Things and Internet Systems are coalescing into a smart manufacturing platform that will deliver vast superior cost efficiencies and better operational effectiveness. These smart manufacturing platforms allow the visualisation of the entire production network and allow individual equipment to make decisions on its own. In the automotive industry, which was early adopters, they are capable of handling a...