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Cincinnati Milacron is Flying High

Cincinnati Milacron is Flying High Cincinnati Milacron is Flying High THE Airlines Division of British Aero­ space Commercial Aircraft Ltd at Chadderton, Manchester has recently installed a Cincinnati Milacron 5-axis, 3 spindle gantry profiling machine to manufacture front wing spars for the A320 Airbus. This high performance machine is the largest ever supplied to British Aerospace by Milacron and is the first of its type in Europe. It is capable of producing three identical components at the same time. The contract was won against com­ petition from machine tool manufac­ turers in various countries. An involved evaluation procedure was undertaken and Milacron was awarded the order to supply, install and commission the gantry profiler. The total turnkey project involved time penalties for late com­ pletion and both Milacron and British alpha & beta — ±30°. Impressive the bed. The tools are changed over Aerospace were pleased to report that feedrates of up to 400 in/min on X and automatically by the transfer system the installation of the basic machine was Y axes, 100 in/min on Z axis and 520 built-in at each spindle. After a tool passed off 4 weeks ahead of schedule. degrees per minute on A and B axes, change, the operator manually unloads Installaton of the machine could not assist in allowing the 75 hp spindles to the used tools from the toolchanger take place until an especially designed remove aluminium at rates of up to mechanism and loads the ones needed reinforced concrete base was constructed 1000 in3/min. Spindle speeds are in­ for the next operation. The tools are in the machine shop by BAe. The 72 feet finitely variable from 900 to 7200 rpm. equiped with No 50 ISO tapers as long bed, which comprises six sections In the case of the Airbus wing spars standard. each 24ft x 80ins wide, was positioned these machining rates are very important When the new Cincinnati Milacron using laser measuring equipment en­ as over 65% of the original 2 tonnes gantry profiler is up to full operational suring perfect alignment to an accuracy weight of the aluminium billet is output it will produce 3 front wing of ±0.002" over the entire length. removed during machining. spars, either port or starboard, in 153 The bed mounted gantry is equipped Three blank billets are placed on the hours — a considerable improvement with an operator console housing the bed and held in place using vacuum. on the production times achieved using Allen Bradley CNC control equipment The first machining process is to create a the existing machine tools. which is compatible with the systems datum surface and then the billets are Interestingly, several UK subcon­ used throughout the British Aerospace turned. All further machining is re­ tractors with the aerospace industry machine shops. ferenced from the bottom (datum) face have also chosen Cincinnati Milacron to give an accuracy of +0.005" on all equipment. Engineering companies on 150 CNC tapes dimensions. The 5-axis movement allows the East and West coasts and in the wing spar webs to be machined with Lancashire are using single spindle 5- One hundred and fifty CNC tapes crack-stoppers and stiffeners at optimum have been produced to achieve all the axis profilers for the exclusive manu­ angles with the minimum number of machining requirements and the pro­ facture of aircraft components. operations. gramming was carried out by British Aerospace staff. It takes 24 tools to complete the All three spindles are capable of full machining tasks and the next tool Cincinnati Milacron, PO Box 505, 5-axis contour machining with move­ required is loaded manually into the Kingsbury Road, Birmingham B24 ments of X-62ft, Y-164", Z-18", and toolchanger mechanism at the end of 0QU. Tel: 021 351 3821. AIRCRAF T ENGINEERING — December 1990 23 http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology Emerald Publishing

Cincinnati Milacron is Flying High

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology , Volume 62 (12): 1 – Dec 1, 1990
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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
0002-2667
DOI
10.1108/eb037036
Publisher site
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Abstract

Cincinnati Milacron is Flying High THE Airlines Division of British Aero­ space Commercial Aircraft Ltd at Chadderton, Manchester has recently installed a Cincinnati Milacron 5-axis, 3 spindle gantry profiling machine to manufacture front wing spars for the A320 Airbus. This high performance machine is the largest ever supplied to British Aerospace by Milacron and is the first of its type in Europe. It is capable of producing three identical components at the same time. The contract was won against com­ petition from machine tool manufac­ turers in various countries. An involved evaluation procedure was undertaken and Milacron was awarded the order to supply, install and commission the gantry profiler. The total turnkey project involved time penalties for late com­ pletion and both Milacron and British alpha & beta — ±30°. Impressive the bed. The tools are changed over Aerospace were pleased to report that feedrates of up to 400 in/min on X and automatically by the transfer system the installation of the basic machine was Y axes, 100 in/min on Z axis and 520 built-in at each spindle. After a tool passed off 4 weeks ahead of schedule. degrees per minute on A and B axes, change, the operator manually unloads Installaton of the machine could not assist in allowing the 75 hp spindles to the used tools from the toolchanger take place until an especially designed remove aluminium at rates of up to mechanism and loads the ones needed reinforced concrete base was constructed 1000 in3/min. Spindle speeds are in­ for the next operation. The tools are in the machine shop by BAe. The 72 feet finitely variable from 900 to 7200 rpm. equiped with No 50 ISO tapers as long bed, which comprises six sections In the case of the Airbus wing spars standard. each 24ft x 80ins wide, was positioned these machining rates are very important When the new Cincinnati Milacron using laser measuring equipment en­ as over 65% of the original 2 tonnes gantry profiler is up to full operational suring perfect alignment to an accuracy weight of the aluminium billet is output it will produce 3 front wing of ±0.002" over the entire length. removed during machining. spars, either port or starboard, in 153 The bed mounted gantry is equipped Three blank billets are placed on the hours — a considerable improvement with an operator console housing the bed and held in place using vacuum. on the production times achieved using Allen Bradley CNC control equipment The first machining process is to create a the existing machine tools. which is compatible with the systems datum surface and then the billets are Interestingly, several UK subcon­ used throughout the British Aerospace turned. All further machining is re­ tractors with the aerospace industry machine shops. ferenced from the bottom (datum) face have also chosen Cincinnati Milacron to give an accuracy of +0.005" on all equipment. Engineering companies on 150 CNC tapes dimensions. The 5-axis movement allows the East and West coasts and in the wing spar webs to be machined with Lancashire are using single spindle 5- One hundred and fifty CNC tapes crack-stoppers and stiffeners at optimum have been produced to achieve all the axis profilers for the exclusive manu­ angles with the minimum number of machining requirements and the pro­ facture of aircraft components. operations. gramming was carried out by British Aerospace staff. It takes 24 tools to complete the All three spindles are capable of full machining tasks and the next tool Cincinnati Milacron, PO Box 505, 5-axis contour machining with move­ required is loaded manually into the Kingsbury Road, Birmingham B24 ments of X-62ft, Y-164", Z-18", and toolchanger mechanism at the end of 0QU. Tel: 021 351 3821. AIRCRAF T ENGINEERING — December 1990 23

Journal

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology – Emerald Publishing

Published: Dec 1, 1990

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