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| Waterjet cuts through production cycle times Oct 10, 2008 | With the Eurofighter Typhoon going through Tranche two and on into Tranche three, as well as the production ramp up for the initial build volume of the Joint Strike Fighter F-35 Lightning II next year, BAE Systems is undergoing a vast amount of change at its Samlesbury site. One of the key changes has been the recent investment in a Ridder Waricut waterjet profiling machine.
Installed at BAE Systems’ Samlesbury site, the Ridder Waricut waterjet profiling machine was purchased as part of the Typhoon forward engineering/production programme. As a BAE Specialist Engineer, explains: “Waterjet was a known process to us as we had an old 5-axis industrial robot that our engineering team had fitted with a waterjet nozzle for high power abrasive waterjet cutting. Although this equipment was very advanced when it was first built over 20 years ago, it did not have the accuracy required for today’s tight tolerance workpieces. To move forward we wanted to go to a modern abrasive waterjet system of a reasonably large size as the main forecast workload for it was the Typhoon foreplane.”
The foreplane is manufactured from titanium and is produced almost entirely in a single Shed. The all-moving foreplanes are superplastically formed and diffusion bonded for minimum mass, high strength and optimum aerodynamic profile. These control surfaces provide the aircraft with superb agility and instant response to pilot inputs. Acting as air-brakes, the foreplanes also help to reduce the aircraft’s landing roll.
BAE Systems conducted a survey of the market to see who the main waterjet suppliers were, and this was whittled down to just two or three who were approached for tender. Although Ridder is renowned for the performance of it waterjet machines, at that time the company had not supplied a machine into the UK. “However, Ridder’s staff came back with all the right answers to our questions, the right cost and the right specification machine for our needs,” says the BAE Specialist Engineer. “What stood out was the company’s willingness to work in partnership to help us develop a solution for our specific production problem.”
The high grade titanium sheet layers for the foreplane are supplied laser cut to a specified shape. These pass through various manufacturing processes and the result is a multi sheet diffusion boned part which is then placed in the superplastic forming (SPF) press. This 3000 tonne hot-forming press heats the foreplane until it is ductile at 930 deg C and forces an inert high pressure gas inside the multi layered structure. This inflates, or blows, it into a finished three dimensional shape approximately 90 mm across with an intricate internal lattice torsion box providing exceptional rigidity for the finish part.
Where the edges of the foreplane are clamped in the SPF press a rough edge is created. This ‘pie crust’ has to be machined away by the Ridder waterjet profiling machine. Although the foreplane is around 60 per cent complete at this point, for production efficiency it is only roughly loaded on to a special jig partly submerged on the 2250 by 3250 worktable of the Waricut machine. Location points – called acorns – on the foreplane sit into slots on the fixturing jig and a touch trigger probe fitted to the waterjet machine then accurately locates the component. From this data, the CNC system alters the orientation of the CAM program to match the actual location of the part and the majority of the outer edge is cut away, with a 4 mm final 5-axis machining allowance left on.
BAE Specialist Engineers say: “The waterjet operation is a roughing process and the finishing cut takes place on a large Forest-Line 5-axis machining centre. Keeping the cycle time on the machining centre to a minimum was one of the key factors for choosing the Ridder machine as its accuracy allows the pie crust to be cut to a tighter tolerance, leaving less material on for the final machining operation.”
The pie crust was previously machined on a large 5-axis machining centre, with a cycle time of 2 to 3 hours. He says: “The Waricut cuts through titanium so easily that the cycle time has been reduced by more than 50 per cent. Both Ridder’s staff and its agent Fortron UK, spent a lot of time understanding our particular problem and came up with a good solution, and the engineering backup has been first class. We like to work in an open and honest partnership and we are happy to tell our suppliers what problems we face in order to get the best possible result with a solution that works. That has certainly been the case with Ridder.”
BAE Systems rarely invests in standard machine tools, most have some degree of tailoring to suit the company’s needs more closely. “The only way to do this is work hand-in-hand with the machine suppliers as they have the expertise on the products”. For example, the Ridder machine at Samlesbury is equipped with a collision sensor to protect the cutting head from contacting the workpiece, It also has an increased Z-axis with the potential to retrofit a 5-axis waterjet head in the future.
The Ridder Waricut waterjet machine has been so impressive in action that other components are being developed to use this manufacturing process, carrying it further into the company’s lean manufacturing operation. BAE Systems is currently seeking approval for waterjet finish cutting to be allowed on military aircraft, and is also looking at the process for the F-35 to get close to finish cuts for suitable parts. “The Ridder machine has been excellent, it went straight in to production and worked, it has done everything we have asked it to do,”.
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