Invited keynote address speech at AIRTEC 2007

Thursday, 8, November, 2007

Integrated development of high performance tools for efficient machining of difficult to cut materials in automotive and aerospace applications

Authors:

Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante – DIAD (IT)

Prof. Keith Ridgway – AMRC with Boeing

Dr. Eng. Mauro Comoglio – Centro Ricerche FIAT (IT)

On October 25th, Dr. Eng. Sergio Durante presented a Keynote Address in the Frankfurt AIRTEC2007 Plenary Session International Conference.

Airbus 380 – Courtesy of Airbus, Our Partner in the AFFIX Project:

Aligning, Holding and Fixing Flexible and Difficult to Handle Components

The speech focuses on the automotive, aerospace industries. In all these industries the need for enhanced materials performance is necessary if they are to remain competitive in global terms. The aerospace industry is currently under-going the changes originally experienced in the automotive industry with increasing acceptance that the OEMs are large system integrators and increasing use of sub-contractors.

This approach has a wide-ranging impact on future developments as the OEMs are pushing research down the supply chain. This creates the risk of creating a major discontinuity between the performance requirements of the OEMs and the manufacturing capabilities of the supply chain. As the OEMs require increasing performance it is essential that the supply chain have the manufacturing capability to cope with the enhanced material properties required.  This discontinuity is addressed in this proposal as new production processes will be developed to cope with the new materials and also the major design changes occurring in the industries considered.

The aerospace and automotive factories of the future will involve jig less assembly and more responsive manufacturing processes. 

This will include increased flexibility, including intelligent work-holding devises and fixtures, adaptive machining, active damping. These will be required to reduce manufacturing costs and increase the accuracy required for jig less assembly.

Al of these aspects have a major impact on machining tool.