Like just about every other manufacturing operation, welding has made the leap into the 21st century with automation, agile manufacturing processes, and offline programming.
Before the coronavirus pandemic upended normal life and essentially shut down commercial airliners, the aviation industry had a projected need for 40,000 new aircraft—planes, helicopters, air taxis, and unmanned aerial vehicles—in the next 20 years.
A burr could become a danger point in the turbine engine. Classical manufacturing processes like turning, milling and grinding can lead to burr formation and unwanted sharp edges.
Honeywell Aerospace, part of global commercial and consumer engineering conglomerate Honeywell, produces a large number of the impellers and blisks used in commercial aeroplanes.
In spite of advancing digitalization, manual workstations are still indispensable because automation is not always profitable with small batch quantities or complex processes.
Since 1996, the Plant 15 machining operations at Mercury Marine have included a reliance on automated machining cells. Over the years, the Fond du Lac, Wis.-based manufacturer and distributor of marine engines, parts, accessories and integrated systems has phased out some traditional manufacturing methods in favor of modern cells.
3D Systems said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has provided 510(k) clearance for maxillofacial surgical guides 3D printed using its LaserForm Ti and DuraForm ProX PA materials.
The service bureaus that grew in lockstep with 3D printing’s early rise in popularity have largely evolved into one-stop shops for a variety of machined, fabricated, plastic-injection molded, and of course 3D-printed parts.
Precision grinding operations cover all applications that require dimensions with tight tolerances and low Ra surface finish requirements, including cylindrical external grinding (OD), internal grinding (ID), surface grinding and creepfeed grinding.
After three years of work, military researchers are near the end of a project to find a faster, cheaper way to make tools for large aerospace parts like skins for wings and fuselages.
