INDUSTRY NEWS
Schuler press used to build Soyuz rocket
Schuler Waghäusel plant has produced one of its biggest-ever hydraulic lines for state-owned Russian company
T
hey take astronauts, and tourists, to the International Space Station (ISS), supply
them with oxygen, food and spare the Soyuz rockets built by TsSKB- Progress.
They have already been launched from cosmodromes like Baikonur in Kazakhstan, Plesetsk in Russia and Kourou in French Guiana some 1,900 times – and following the explosion of the US space shuttle Columbia in 2003, they were temporarily the only connection with the ISS. The Russian state- owned company now plans to produce its launch vehicles on a Schuler press. The pre-acceptance for the hydraulic line with a press force of 2,600 metric tons is due to be delivered by the end of May. The triple-action press will be used, to produce aluminum tank lids. These must be extremely robust in order to withstand the extreme loads – holder above and bed cushion
TsSKB-Progress plans to produce parts for its Soyuz launch vehicles on a hydraulic press supplied by Schuler.
below each provide 600 metric tons of press force.
“With bed dimensions of 5-6 mtrs, the line is one of the largest hydraulic presses we’ve ever built
On 17 September 2009, the Soyuz- 2.1b launcher lofted a cluster of Meteor-M satellites from Baikonur.
in Waghäusel,” says Dr. Martin Habert, Managing Director of Schuler in Waghäusel. Carrier rockets are steadily increasing in size in order to transport ever
greater payloads into space. This has led to a growth in the size of components used to assemble the rockets – and the lines on which they are produced. “This obviously represents a challenge for us in engineering the press,” explains Dr. Habert. The logistics involved are also impressive: the individual line components must not exceed 160 or 170 metric tons in weight, to ensure they can still be safely transported by road. The longest part of the journey, though, will be made by river and sea via the Rhine, North Sea, Baltic success of the project as they have many decades of experience in producing such large-scale equipment.
More information on Schuler AG t: +49 7161 66-7789 f: +49 7161 66-907 · simon. scherrenbacher@schulergroup. com
www.schulergroup.com
On 12 October 2008, Soyuz-FG launch vehicle from Baikonur to the ISS. On board: Commander
Yury Lonchakov (Russia), astronaut Michael Edward Fink (NASA) and space tourist Richard Garriott.
A Soyuz rocket carrying a satellite was launched from the space center in French Guiana on December 2, 2012.
4 IMT June/July 2014
www.internationalmetaltube.com
Photo source: Schuler
Photo source: Schuler
Photo source: Schuler
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