CONTRACT PROFILE
This tool cuts a critical component in a GE engine’s reverse thruster apparatus. Preinesberger says most people would use a straight fl ute for such a tool but his design’s aggressive rake is much more effective on aluminum. He calls the resulting shape a “batwing.”
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envision a new tool geometry that solves the riddle at hand—then he has to fi gure out how to make the thing. For Preinesberger, the process starts in his own private machining simulator: “You need to be able to think like a tool. You need to picture the tool going through the material and the action that is going to happen. You need to be able to picture in your head what happens in that cut and during that cut... Not everybody has it. I would say it all comes down to 3D thinking.” Some of Preinesberger’s skill is probably inher- ent, but he points to years of experience in explain- ing his ability, which like so many Europeans started with a solid apprenticeship as a tool and die maker. He was also an applications engineer with Walter Maschinenbau for six years, grinding everything from diesel fuel injection plungers to involute gear forms, and in an intriguing twist spent years making woodworking tools, where the need to cut parts for joints forced him to diagnose how adjustments to
certain cutting tool features could correct mismatches. So it all starts in the head, though Preinesberger quite happily pointed out that today’s software makes it much easier to grind a complex cutting tool once you’ve envisioned it.
Tinkering with Success and Getting Better 5% of the Time Part business strategy, part insatiable curiosity, Sonic has never focused on any particular customer base. They make tools for everything from shotguns to tampon molds. Within just the aerospace market, they’ve developed a “batwing” cutter for a critical component in a jet engine’s reverse thruster, form tools that cut cabin hanger eyelets in one shot, and specialized milling cutters that replace a range of drills and reamers for making holes in composites. Details on the composite tools remain secret, but Sonic worked with Swedish company Novator AB to apply their portable orbital drilling technology. In this approach, a diamond-coated Sonic cutter moves in an eccentric motion around the hole center while rotating around its own axis and feeding through the workpiece. This orbital (aka helical) drill- ing process is particularly benefi cial when drilling advanced composites that are stacked in combination with aluminum or titanium, because disassembly for deburring would be impossible or too time consuming. The common thread throughout Sonic’s developments is a fear of nothing but failure. In Staylor’s case it started young.
FXW-203
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AdvancedManufacturing.org | July 2015 5/27/15 11:45 AM
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