Turning in the aerospace industry Conventional manufacturing technology

Turning in the aerospace industry

Abstract
The purpose of this research was to look at machining as process to manufacture components in the aerospace industry. This was done by researching different machining processes available in the industry and learning about the machining characteristics. The major conventional machining methods used in the industry are; milling, drilling, turning and shaping/planing. The most common machining process available in the industry is a center lathe because of the simplicity of the design and the multiple operations it can be designed to carry. The factors limiting this machining process are the structural design of the machine and limited knowledge regarding the machining of composite materials using a lathe. The environmental impact from the machining process is also a concern and more research is required to solve this issue.

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Content Introduction Turning in the aerospace industry Optimizing machining Analysis of lathe Conclusion References Page 4 Page 8 Page 10 Page 10 Page 11

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Introduction
The removal of materials from a work piece to obtain a finished product of the desired shape, size and surface is called machining (Beddoes.J, Bibby.M, 1998). The main purpose of this process is to obtain closer dimensional tolerances and surface roughness, which is not available from other manufacturing processes e.g. forming or casting. In machining, the material is removed from the work piece by the relative motion between the tool and the part (Beddoes.J, Bibby.M, 1998). The process involves shearing a thin piece of material from the work piece called the chip. This process of chip formation is repeated several times before the final desired shape of the component is found. The understanding of the mechanics of the chip formation can help effectively diagnose machining problems and help improve the process. The important parameters controlling the machining process are the shear angle and tool rake angle . They are shown in Figure 1. The positive rake angles are recommended to ensure the metal is cut, rather than pushed along the surface and minimize the machining cutting force. The disadvantage of using large rake angles would make the tool fragile which would lead to tool breakage. The condition of the tools life and cutting parame ters will depend upon the understanding about the material properties and then finding the most efficient cutting geometry to obtain the results.

Figure 1 - Basic mechanics of metal cutting processes (Serope Kalpakjan - Machining processes and machine tools)

Figure 1 show all the forces required to be calculated during the cutting processes, which will help find the power required to machine the material to specific shape. All the forces can be calculated which can help find the most efficient cutting angles to prolong the life of the cutting tool. The calculations can also help to find the correct machining method for the job.

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There are many different types of machining processes available to form the aerospace components in the industry. The materials in aerospace are geometrically complex and usually made of hard materials, which makes them difficult to machine and correct processes and design parameters are needed to do the job. The major conventional machining methods used in the industry are: milling, drilling, shaping/planing and turning. The correct machining method to be chosen for a particular component will depend on the complexity of design, machinability of the material, production time required, surface finish required, impact on the material, impact on the environment and the budget of the project. The most common and the oldest single-point machining methods still used in the industry are the lathes (turning process). The lathes have relatively simple tool geometry and are used for variety of operations. They are able to work on metals and plastics by varying the cutting speed, depth size and depth of the cut. This method is used for turning components to manufacture cylindrical components. The process for lathes is a means for traversing the cutting tool along the axis of revolution of the work piece and at right angles to it (Youssef.Helmi, 2008). The different tooling available to use with this process are shown in Figure 2. The cutting tools can be separated into single and multi-point cutting tool.

Figure 2 - Lathe tools ((H.N. Gupta, R.C. Gupta, Arun Mittal, Manufacturing processes 2nd edition)

The single point cutting tools are most often used in this process. In aerospace the components like the housing (ring case) of an engine is machined by using a turning process, lathe. The process of creating a hole in a work piece is mostly achieved by a means of drilling (multipoint cutting tool). The process involves holding the work piece in a rigid place and using a rotating cutting tool(drill piece) to drill a hole. Drilling is considered as a roughing process and therefore the accuracy and surface finish in drilling are not generally much of a concern. The most Page 5

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commonly used drill is the twist drill. There are many different types of drill tools used to create a range of holes in the work piece, shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 - Drilling tools (H.Yousef, . El-Hofy (CRC 2008)- Machine Technology: Machine tools and operations, Pg 72)

This process of drilling is used to create holes for rivets and bolts which are used to hold the components together, for example the wing skins of the aircraft are held together by the rivets. The process of machining horizontal, vertical and inclined flat and contoured surfaces is obtained by shaping or planing techniques.(Gupta.N.H, Gupta.C.R, Arun Mittal, 2009) The only difference between these two techniques is that in planing, the work is reciprocated and the tool is fed across the work piece, whereas in shaping the tool is reciprocated and the work is fed across the cutting tool. This process is similar to lathe because it also uses a single point cutting tool and chip formation is similar. However the difference between turning and this process is the cutting action. The shaping cutting action is intermittent and chips are only removed during the forward action of the cutting tool. This process works under severe impact conditions and thus designed to be more rigid and strongly dimensioned and the cutting speed does not exceed 60 m/min. Therefore these tools should not be used in shock sensitive materials, like ceramics or brittle metals. The cutting tooling required for this process is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 4 - Cutting tools used in shaping work ((H.N. Gupta, R.C. Gupta, Arun Mittal, Manufacturing processes 2nd edition)

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In aerospace the shaping process could be used after extruding a rod or a bar, to obtain the material to the required surface finish. The process of removing material to form intricate shapes is achieved by milling. The surface quality is improved by using multi-cutting tool edges, he process is different from rest of the machining process mentioned above because the cutting is intermittent and each tooth produces a chip of variable thickness. There are two types of milling processes and they are up milling and down milling, shown in Figure 5. Some of the tooling used in milling process is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5 - Up and down milling (H.N. Gupta, R.C. Gupta, Arun Mittal, Manufacturing processes 2nd edition)

Figure 6 - Milling cutting tools (H.N. Gupta, R.C. Gupta, Arun Mittal, Manufacturing processes 2nd edition)

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In the aerospace industry, milling processes are extensively used and are applicable to most manufacturing needs. The milling process is used to machine an aluminum piece to create the Airbuss A380s ribs for the wings (Lamikiz.A, 2009). All the machining processes mentioned above can be used to machine polymers (thermoplastics) but due to the low strength of the material, the process needs to be modified for it. The material properties require tools to be sharp and depth of the cut to be small to avoid tools becoming blunt. The blunt tools generate extra heat which can affect the properties of thermoplastics. Therefore diamonds tools are preferred which can maintain sharp cutting edges and cutting fluids are used to improve the cutting of the plastics. The machining of ceramics can be done by the processes mentioned above but because of the brittle nature of the ceramics will need to be taken in account. The high-speed steel and diamond tools can be used but because of the advancement in machining processes, non-traditional processes like electricdischarge machining (EDM) are used instead.

Turning in the aerospace industry

A lathe is the most common machining tool used in the engineering plants and the reasons for its success is the versatility of the process. The basic process requires the cutting tool at the right angle from the work piece and cutting it through the relative motion between the tool and the work piece (Chuck Fennell). The most common and oldest lathes used today are the center lathe or also called the engine lathe. The main structure of the center lathes are shown in Figure 7. They are: Machine bed Headstock Tailstock Carriage The machine bed supports all the parts of the lathe and is usually made of cast iron. The headstock contains the gears and driving shaft of the machine immersed in lubricating fluid. The headstock houses the chuck which is used to

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hold the work piece and when the spindle rotates, the chuck holding the work piece also rotates. The tailstock provides the guide for the work piece and used to support the work piece. The carriage moves the cutting tool along the machine bed to the required cutting length.

Figure 7 - Centre lathe - manufacturing processes 2nd edition page 107

The generation of new surfaces of the work piece requires the relative motion between the work piece and the tool. The primary motions of turning that defines the final shape of the work piece are the; cutting speeds, cutting feed and the cutting angle. The Figure 8 illustrates the work piece being rotated at certain cutting speed and being cut by the cutting tools.

Figure 8-A turning operation on a round workpiece held in a three-jaw Manufacturing processes, Chuck fenell

These parameters will calculated to define the material removal rate (MRR) of the process, machining time, tool wear, surface quality and power

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requirements. These calculations can help to evaluate if lathe is the perfect tool for the required job. The center lathes used to be manually controlled and cutting accuracy was dependent on the level of operators skills. In the modern world these machining process are automated to increase accuracy in cutting and reduce the costs related to the process. All the parameters of cutting can be inputted in a computer model and the most efficient process of machining can be obtained. There are still errors in the computational modeling because of the knowledge that is available currently about machining but as there is more research done on the subject, the process will improve. Optimizing the process The structure of the machine is a crucial part of optimizing the machining process. The structure of a machine supports all the components and withstands all the forces coming during the cutting process .The structures mass is always under research to make it as light as possible and to stop the resonance effect from happening during the cutting process. The structure must have enough stiffness to keep the required precision but also lightweight to ensure the inertial loads on the machine are not high, this will prolong the life of the machine. The main moving parts in the lathes are the cutting tool, gears in the headstock and the chuck holding the work piece. These parts must be efficiently designed to ensure all the parameters mentioned above are met. The power required to cut a material will be dependent on how efficiently these parameter are met, therefore the environmental effect of machining is dependent on the mass of the machines. The lathe machine can be optimized by increasing the modularity of its functions. The highly competitive global market of machining now requires the machines to do a multiple roles and the success of the machine will depend on it. If the machine can be customized to do a multiple tasks by separating and adding different cutting tools to it, then it will make it the machine very desirable in the global market.

Analysis of lathe
The benefits of using lathe to machine components are many, which is why it is the most common machining tool used in the engineering industry. The lathe machine can be used to do many different operations like:

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Turning Facing Taper turning Profile turning Parting Boring Threading Knurling

The other advantage is the simplicity of the process, as there are usually only 3 defined movements for the machine. These are the spinning of the chuck around the axis, vertical and horizontal movements of the cutting tool. These constraints make it easier to operate the machine and to model the process in the computational software. The disadvantage of the lathe is related to the limits of the cutting movements. The lathe can only create circular shapes but cannot machine intricate shapes required for the aerospace industry. The other disadvantage which affects all the machining processes is the environmental impact from them. In aerospace the components are machined with almost of 80-90% material being wasted which is a growing concern in this ever consuming society. As the aerospace industry move towards light, high strength composite materials, the future of lathe will depend on the research done to improve it. It will depend on its ability to machine composite materials with high accuracy and long tool life.

Conclusion
There are many different machining tools available in the market to produce any component required in the aerospace industry. The most common machining method used in the industry is the turning process by a center lathe. The future of lathe process will depend on the research done to develop the process to machine composite materials and competitiveness of the other machining processes.

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References -Books:
Beddoes. J, Bibby.J.M (1999). Principles of metal manufacturing processes. Great Britian: Arnold. p190-229.Smith, M. (2001). Writing a successful paper. The Trey Research Monthly, 53, 149-150. Chuck Fennell. (-). Manufacturing processes. Machining processes and machining tools. - (13), p56-76. Gupta.N.H, Gupta.C.R, Mittal Arun (2009). Manufacturing processes. 2nd ed. India: New Age. p91-119 Lopez de Lacalle.L, Lamikiz.L (2009). Machine tools for high performance machining. Madrid: Springer. p399-419. Youssef.A.Helmi, El-Hofy. Hassan, (2008). Machining technology.

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