Cibatool takes to the air!

Citation

(1999), "Cibatool takes to the air!", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 71 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.1999.12771aab.014

Cibatool takes to the air!

Cibatool takes to the air!

Keywords Aircraft, Ciba, Laminates

British Aerospace Regional Aircraft Ltd, Prestwick, chose Cibatool BM5460 Polyurethane Tooling Board in its recent manufacture of a new master model for the air inlet cowl on the Allied Signal Garrett TPE331-14 engines used on the Jetstream 41 aircraft.

One of the successes which played a significant part in the cowl development was its venture into rapid modelling and tooling.

The development process involved the design and manufacture of three new cowl shapes. The manufacturing technology for all the cowls was quickly defined as a single skin epoxy/glass laminate.

During the initial development phase, having committed to the manufacture of Option 1 model using traditional manual modelling techniques, it was realised that if the programme to which they were committed was to be achieved, Options 2 and 3 would require to be completed in half the time required for the first option.

The time consuming part of the process was the creation of the master model from which the glass fibre cowl was to be moulded.

From their investigations into how other composite users, including race car development teams, approach this problem, it soon became apparent that the best approach would be to machine the master model from polyurethane modelling board directly from the CAD surface geometry.

Following discussions with Ciba Specialty Chemicals plc, a local prototyping company was highlighted as potential suppliers of this technology. The company, CA Models Ltd, Stirling, was approached and from discussions it became clear that if they could deliver what they were predicting, the cycle time for the manufacture of the model could be reduced by a factor of 2-3 and the price was extremely competitive.

Manufacture of the model was awarded to this company and Iges data transfer trials were carried out from the Catia (and Anvil) systems of British Aerospace Regional Aircraft Ltd, to the DELCAM DUCT system at CA Models Ltd. This proved successful.

The completed cowl model was delivered in eight days, by which time a backup model was only 50 per cent complete.

Using Cibatool, the benefits were: time reduction (factor 2-3), cost reduction (16 per cent less); improved quality (accurate to 0.003in.); no drawings required; wide choice of model material.

For further details contact Kay Roberts TOPS Dept, Tregartha Dinnie Ltd. Tel: +44 (0) 1442 890000; Fax: +44 (0) 1442 891886.