Keywords
Citation
(2005), "Protecting operators from dust and swarf", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 77 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2005.12777aad.008
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2005, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Protecting operators from dust and swarf
Protecting operators from dust and swarf
Keywords: Aircraft, Aircraft components
Aluminium alloy wing ribs and smaller components for the new Airbus A380 family of large commercial airliners are produced at the Airbus factory in Filton, Bristol.
Although the components are precision-machined on computer- controlled machine tools, they still need to be deburred and polished by hand. To remove the swarf and dust generated in these operations, Airbus has installed Nederman extraction systems.
Wing ribs for the A380 are up to 4 m long, which made extraction at source impractical for the rib polishing process. Nederman therefore proposed a scheme to convert an entire room so that the harmful aluminium alloy dust from the polishing process could be extracted and filtered. This polishing room therefore had the ceiling lowered to reduce the volume of the room, and the airflow was designed to carry the dust away from the operators as they work on the ribs.
In cell F at Filton, where smaller aluminium alloy wing components are produced, seven tables have been installed, each with six extraction arms. These arms take swarf and dust away from the deburring and polishing workstations to a centralised high- vacuum extraction and filtration plant. Nederman proposed this arrangement in response to Airbus' wish to reuse a redundant Nederman high-vacuum system that had recently been decommissioned from another production area.
Matthew Merchant, Team Leader for Cell F, comments: “Nothing is ever too much trouble for Nederman; they are always only a phone call away. The extraction systems they have provided meet all of the criteria that we need them to, providing a clean, safe working environment that fulfils all of the latest health and safety requirements”.
For further details contact: Nederman, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1772 332142; Fax: +44 (0)1772 315273; E-mail: info@nederman.co.uk