Cutting/Kitting
Shop practice impacts drilling success
When you're drilling holes in composites, there are many variables that must be considered. Some factors that have an impact on success are process and shop driven. The following are industry best practices that have been demonstrated to maximize hole quality and drilling efficiency with composites.
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New cutting tools for drilling material stacks
Dormer Tools Ltd. (Sheffield, U.K.) has developed veined polycrystalline diamond (PCD) cutting tools for drilling applications that involve stacked materials in aircraft wingskin assemblies.
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Very Light Jets Creating A Demand For Composites
"Baby" jets are causing an aviation buzz but will the market exist?
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Skinning the F-35 fighter
Fastening the all-composites skin on the Lightning II requires machining and drilling technology that is optimized for cost-efficiency.
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Corvette's carbon hood creates shock and awe
North America’s first mass-produced, all-CFRP hood raises the bar for production sports cars.
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Automating wind blade manufacture
Recent technology announcements portend a new era of more efficient blade production.
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CNC routers optimize cooling tower build
Although cooling towers traditionally have been made with wood and concrete, composite materials are gaining acceptance due to their corrosion and rot resistance, light weight and ease of installation.
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Chemical vapor deposition of diamond material helps reduce cutting time, increase quality for JSF wing skins
Who wouldn’t give $105,000 to gain $222 million? Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. (LMAC, Ft. Worth, Texas) did and in the process was able to fabricate dimension-critical aerostructures more efficiently, more accurately, and faster. LMAC is a major components manufacturer for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), the
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Robotic trimming radically shortens Corvette fender production cycle
Plasan USA (Bennington, Vt.) molds the Chevrolet Z06 Corvette’s front fenders with hand layed, autoclave-cured carbon/epoxy prepreg. Until recently, however, manual deflashing, trimming and drilling of the demolded parts consumed more than an hour to meet requirements for edge quality and fastener hole location
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Managing multi-axis manufacturing
Much early computer numerically controlled (CNC) machinery served short-run military and space programs where cost per part was too high to be acceptable in the manufacture of commercial aircraft. Now, Automated CNC machinery moves toward volume production and part-specific design.
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