Machining of high-strength aluminium

Citation

(2008), "Machining of high-strength aluminium", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 80 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2008.12780bab.009

Machining of high-strength aluminium

Article Type: Aerospace technology From: Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology: An International Journal, Volume 80, Issue 2.

A new high-performance machining centre from DST has been selected by a supply chain company to the international Aerospace Industry within months of its launch. At the International Aerospace Supply Fair AIRTEC in Frankfurt/Germany, Moyola Precision Engineering Ltd, ordered an ECOSPEED F HT (Figure 8): “The DST team have a specific focus and knowledge of the Aerospace sector which provided confidence that the machine will meet specification requirements. Moyola wanted a quantum leap in technology development and DST provided this opportunity and engineering capability,” commented Raymond Semple on the million Euro investment. He is the managing director of the manufacturer of five-axis complex high-precision parts for the Aerospace Industry in Northern Ireland.

Figure 8 The new ECOSPEED F HT machining centre can handle work pieces on pallet sizes of 1,000 x 1,000mm with maximum precision and productivity

The ECOSPEED F HT was developed to provide a high-productivity solution for the machining of smaller five-axis aluminium Aircraft Structural parts. This machine now completes and compliments the ECOSPEED range along side the highly successful ECOSPEED and ECOSPEED F models which have set bench marks for the production of medium to large five-axis Aircraft Structural parts. The ECOSPEED F HT is configured as a conventional HMC with twin 1,000 x 1,000mm pallets and featuring the unique Sprint Z3 parallel kinematic machining head, which has proven it is outstanding performance on five-axis applications on more than 40 installations with the larger ECOSPEED models.

The ECOSPEED F HT has a working envelope of X: 1,250mm, Y: 1,350mm and Z: 670mm with the Sprint Z3 (Figure 9) head providing ^408 in terms of “A” and “B”. The 80kW Spindle with a max. of 30,000rpm delivers full power from 16,000rpm and provides the capability of removing 8,000cm³/min of high- strength aluminium alloys such as EN AW 7050/7150. High acceleration and deceleration of 1g in all axis (9.81m/s² or 6858/s²) further contribute to the outstanding overall performance of the machine.

Figure 9 The cutting performance of 8,000cm³/min for high-strength aircraft aluminium is down to the Sprint Z3 machining head, which is tried and tested in larger machines

The user also benefits from enhanced productivity through fast automatic pallet changing (11s) and rapid chip to chip tool change times (7s). With pallet location repeatability of 0,010mm and positional accuracy of 4mm the ECOSPEED F HT will also prove produce highly accurate parts.

Raymond Semple is extremely satisfied with the prompt delivery date of early March 2008: The ECOSPEED F HT will greatly enhance our customer service in terms of doing smaller, more complex five-axis parts in a cost effective manner. This will compliment our existing investment of the ECOSPEED F 2035 six-axis which can make parts up to 3.5 x 2m.

Details available from: Dörries Scharmann Technologie GmbH; Tel.: +49 (0) 2166 454 0; Fax: +49(0) 2166 454 300; E-mail: information@ds-technologie.de; web site: www.ds-technologie.de