FEATURE: AEROSPACE
“There is a lot of promise for machining CFRP in the aerospace industry”
an aircraft shell the material might be 2mm thick, and made up of around 10 layers. In the case of damage, all 10 layers may have to be removed, whereas in other cases it may be only three or four layers. A replacement patch can then be fitted – and while this doesn’t 100 per cent replicate the strength of the non-machined CFRP, it will generally retain 90 to 95 per cent of the strength of the original component. An innovative system technology
– consisting of a laser, a scanner, an interferometry system and a control software – determines the individual process parameters according to the shape of the component. The interferometry system measures the depth spatially with high
resolution, and thus ensures a precise layer-by-layer removal. In that way, surface deformations due to local increases in thickness, which occur frequently during mechanical processing, can be avoided. Dittmar continued: ‘It’s a very easy industrial application. The laser can be on the opposite side of the room to the component, and can just be guided by cable rather than by a system of mirrors. It also incorporates a measurement technique; the laser process can be monitored as it progresses, so we can measure how much material has been removed at any time. There is no need to check the process in steps, which can obviously represent a saving in terms of time and cost.’
Drilling down on efficiency Another project ongoing at LZH, LaBoKomp, involves the development of laser drilling of composites, also for use in the aerospace industry. For aviation in particular, the drilling of CFRP has an enormous market potential.
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As much as 50 per cent of the body of an Airbus A350 can be made from CFRP
Aircraft manufacturers produce increasing quantities of components with a high number of drilled holes for riveted and screwed joints. This requires reliable, fast and cost- efficient processes to withstand international competition – and, for this purpose, laser beam drilling is an ideal alternative to conventional processes. Richard Staehr, who is working on the
project, explained that the aim was to achieve processing times similar to that of conventional drilling – that is, around 10 seconds to drill a hole through material that is 2mm thick. Staehr told Laser Systems Europe: ‘The
process is carried out at very high speed so the material is not damaged by the heat, and we adopt a very particular strategy according to the thickness of the material. If we move the laser too slowly there is the risk of damage to the plastic. It’s like putting
g SUMMER 2019 LASER SYSTEMS EUROPE 19
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