Composites i design & development
taking carbon fibre
to new heights
Huge contract: Spirit’s A350 XWB work represents a big opportunity for the company
The new generation of long range aircraft from Airbus and Boeing both represent
a multitude of ‘firsts’ for the use of carbon fibre in critical structures, and in
doing so have necessitated wholesale changes in the ways these components are
produced. Simon Lott reports.
T
he A350 XWB programme has become a highly machine is a substantial project in itself and given the long
valuable business opportunity for Kansas-based Spirit term nature of the end products, both those being provided
AeroSystems. Now responsible for producing fuselage to Spirit have been built especially for the production of spar
section 15, front wing spars, the fixed leading edge and stringers components. A third cantilever-type fibre placement machine
for the aircraft, it is set to take delivery of a range of equipment for 2D construction of stringers with the focus on high speed
from Spanish machine manufacturer MTorres as production lamination is also being supplied.
becomes a reality. Along the process chain, MTorres is supplying two
MTorres has been a key enabler in reaching the productivity TORRESMILL routers for the drilling and milling of wing
required of these new methods with its carbon fibre laying spars and fuselage skins. The first is a 5-axis gantry system with
technologies, with the most substantial order so far being the high speed 30,000rpm spindle and will be supplied with the
provision of seven machines to Spirit’s new 500,000ft
2
facility highly flexible TORRESTOOL system, designed for products
in Kinston, North Carolina, which is due to open in the third with complex or varying geometries. The second will be utilised
quarter of 2010. on the processing of fuselage skin panels up to 20m long,
The most complex of the machinery being delivered requiring only hard tooling.
will be two advanced automated fibre placement systems For inspection, a 15m long and 2m wide gantry-style
(TORRESFIBERLAYUP) for the production of front spar TORRESSONIC ultrasonic inspection machine will be used
components to shape, marking the first time such components to examine completed front spars at the Spirit facility. In this
have been constructed from carbon fibre on a large aircraft. case, MTorres provides the framework to which a commercially
Along with orders from Kawasaki Heavy Industries and GKN available Kuka robot is installed. The end effector and
Aerospace, these are part of a new breed of fibre placement electronics are provided by MTorres’ technology partner,
solutions. Designed to accommodate greater flexibility and Tecnatom. A further set of two, 5m tall column-type machines,
productivity over gantry – or column-type machines, the comprising of two separate scanning arrays, will be devoted
machines offer claimed lay-up rates of 60m/min, an order to the simultaneous outer and inner mould line scanning of
of magnitude larger than previously possible and crucially, fuselage skin panels, which can be up to 20m in length.
making the process economically viable. The assembly of each It is however the huge fibre placement machines which really
AEROSPACEMANUFACTURING | jANUARy 2010 23
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