Electrawn
01-13-2005, 11:27 AM
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2027&e=8&u=/chitribts/20050112/ts_chicagotrib/boeingbetsbigonaplasticplane
On Tuesday, Boeing unveiled the fruit of this thinking. It has built its mandrel slabs out of a special metal called Invar, which is carefully etched to provide the mirror image of the inside of an airplane fuselage. The slabs contain deep, lengthwise grooves so that premade composite stringers can be laid in before the composite skin is wrapped over them.
On a rack next to this colossus is the tape-laying head, only one at the moment. It applies layer upon layer of composite material as the mandrel spins. Boeing has tested a four-head rack and hopes to eventually use eight heads.
"They're all computer controlled, and it's like they're like dancing with each other," Gillette said. "They don't crash, they get out of each other's way, and they pause and let the other one go by."
Once a fuselage barrel is wrapped around the mandrel, it has to be cooked for hours at around 250 degrees to cure and harden the composite material. This is done by picking the barrel up, mandrel intact, and moving it into an autoclave, a pressurized oven the size and shape of a submarine.
When the curing is complete, the Invar slabs that make up the mandrel have to be gently removed one piece at a time. Then a robotic cutting machine descends on the completed barrel to carve out the windows and doors.
Must be the latest artisan guild release. Yah know...Feltching, Cobbling, Forging...Aircraft building?
-Electrawn
On Tuesday, Boeing unveiled the fruit of this thinking. It has built its mandrel slabs out of a special metal called Invar, which is carefully etched to provide the mirror image of the inside of an airplane fuselage. The slabs contain deep, lengthwise grooves so that premade composite stringers can be laid in before the composite skin is wrapped over them.
On a rack next to this colossus is the tape-laying head, only one at the moment. It applies layer upon layer of composite material as the mandrel spins. Boeing has tested a four-head rack and hopes to eventually use eight heads.
"They're all computer controlled, and it's like they're like dancing with each other," Gillette said. "They don't crash, they get out of each other's way, and they pause and let the other one go by."
Once a fuselage barrel is wrapped around the mandrel, it has to be cooked for hours at around 250 degrees to cure and harden the composite material. This is done by picking the barrel up, mandrel intact, and moving it into an autoclave, a pressurized oven the size and shape of a submarine.
When the curing is complete, the Invar slabs that make up the mandrel have to be gently removed one piece at a time. Then a robotic cutting machine descends on the completed barrel to carve out the windows and doors.
Must be the latest artisan guild release. Yah know...Feltching, Cobbling, Forging...Aircraft building?
-Electrawn