Aerospace, Part 1 – Cost-Effective, Mechanical Finishing for Large, Structural Aircraft Components
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To this day, the surface of large structural aircraft components is frequently finished by hand. This process is not only costly, but extremely inefficient and hard to replicate with absolute conformity.
Rosler Metal Finishing is changing the notion that suitable mechanical finishing equipment is not available for large, structural aerospace components by offering mass finishing technology capable of solving this problem and providing fully automatic finishing of work pieces up to 30 feet long.
We kick off our Aerospace Series with an overview of the cost-effective and mechanical finishing options Rosler offers for the Aerospace industry.
Vibratory Tubs Offer a Solution
Thanks to the development of large, powerful vibratory tubs manual deburring and grinding of large aircraft components can now be eliminated. The development of perfectly controlled mechanical finishing systems offers finishing solutions for applications where the biggest rotary vibrator, because of the size of the parts, might still be too small.
Straight tubs are very suitable for large and sensitive parts which, if necessary, can be treated in separate compartments without the risk of part-on-part impingement. Rosler’s unique range of tub vibrators can includes different models with sizes from 180 mm x 530 mm (7” x 21”)up to 500 mm x 4,000 mm (60” x 160”). Our special long trough vibrators have a cross section of 850 mm (33”) and a length of 6,000 mm (236”). Extended length tub vibrators with a length of about 9.5 meters (30 feet) have also been built.
Rosler’s large tub vibrators are equipped with custom engineered vibratory drive systems developed and built in-house. Depending on the finishing process, their speed can be adjusted between 1,500 and 3,000 RPM. Automatic process water cleaning and recycling systems ensure that the vibratory process produces absolutely consistent and repeatable finishing results.
Applicable Work Pieces
The ability to accommodate long components which may also be heavy or require delicate handling lends the use of vibratory tubs to a number of aerospace components such as:
- Fuselage components including stringers, longerons, formers (frames), and floor struts.
- Wing components including wing spars, wing ribs, ailerons, flaps, wing tips, and engine mounts.
- Landing gear components including shock strut bodies, linkages, and wheels.
Vibratory tubs can finish components up to 30 feet long, 5 feet wide, and weighing up to 7,000 pounds.
Our expertise and equipment are used by leading aircraft manufacturers and their suppliers across the globe for deburring and edge radiusing structural fuselage components, processing structural components after CNC machining, and removing burs from landing gear.
Advantages of Mechanizing Finishing
Manually deburring and grinding is tedious and costly. Since the process is labor-intensive, it usually causes large quality fluctuations with relatively high scrap rates.
Above all, manual finishing requires highly skilled labor, which, in today’s economy, is especially hard and sometimes impossible to find. These issues can lead to severe bottlenecks and affect your overall productivity.
Utilizing equipment to provide tailored finishing processes offers several advantages over manual processing including:
- Absolute repeatability.
- Improved process efficiency.
- Reduced reliance on skilled labor.
- Automation options for handling.
- Scalable customizations allowing for variable use of machinery.
