Aerospace Technology

摘要

Four-fifths of production at contract machinist, Gardner Aerospace, Wales, involves prismatic machining of Ti64 (6 per cent aluminium/4 per cent vanadium) titanium alloy; the remainder is aluminium. Yet three years ago the reverse was true - 80 per cent of throughput was aluminium.rnWinning a major contract in 2005 for the supply of titanium nacelle frames for the Bombardier Dash 8-400 turboprop was the catalyst for change. However, machining the tough material in larger volumes combined with greater component complexity meant that Gardner's existing machining centres, and the cutting tools, were struggling to achieve the required accuracy and production volumes.rnSo Gardner, whose plant in Wales specialises in machining medium-size structural parts for aircraft, decided to install a turnkey system to produce the mid and forward nacelle frames, which are horseshoe-shaped and measure approximately 900 × 750mm and from 50 to 115 mm thick. The chosen supplier was Mazak, which delivered one of its FH8800 four-axis, twin-pallet, horizontal-spindle machining centres complete with programs and tooling.