Kaman UK (Darwen, England), a global supplier to the aerospace industry, has utilized innovative “springback” modelling techniques that reduces development lead times for designing and manufacturing complex composite mould tools by up to 30%. These reduced lead times, in turn, reduces entry into service times and costs for the end user, claims the company.
Kaman UK has incorporated mathematical modelling software from LMAT that accurately predicts and analyzes the spring and twist of a carbon fiber’s composite parts during manufacture, and then compensates mould tool surfaces accordingly to ensure design parameters are met. This process removes the risk of modifying manufacturing moulds after initial parts have been made and foreshortens project development times.
“We are capable of enabling the use of new mould tools in weeks rather than months, which is removing a lot of risk and cost for us and making new product introduction much simpler and shorter for our customers,” says James Scholfied, business development director for Kaman UK. “This is a huge step forward in composite manufacture development and greatly increases the ability of Kaman to assure the mould tool and therefore the part is right first time.”
When a composite mould tool is manufactured, its surface features don’t always define the composite part characteristics required due to certain factors due to acute angles and curvature, cross sectional thickness, fiber architecture, and thermal stresses. Typically, this has necessitated that the mould tool be re-cut, adjusted or even remade, which can be both a costly and time-consuming endeavor. However, the use of LMAT modelling enables springback values to be predicted on a part-by-part basis, thus ensuring Kaman can design and manufacture the required composite mould.
“Distorted components can cause major problems during aircraft assembly,” says Tomasz Garstka, LMAT’s managing director. “However, utilizing the benefits of LMAT’s advanced numerical tooling design workflow process provides compensated tooling geometries right first time. For a number of our customers we have supported them in significantly reducing overall product cost as well as improving in-service performance.”
Kaman UK have made long-term investments in its in-house metallic and composites capabilities along with a £1 million ($1,312,085) investment in a surface treatment line that achieved NADCAP approval status last year. This enables the company to offer a full service shop for fully integrated structures.
Source: Kaman UK, www.kamen.com.