A seven-machine automated system will machine aircraft wing ribs at KAI Korea Aerospace Industries.
KAI Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd. is banking on an automated machining system to increase production volume when alternating between setups and machining. The system consists of seven high-performance machining centers, along with a rail-guided transport system with three loading and unloading stations. Sixty storage stations will link the seven machines.
KAI Korea Aerospace, in Sacheon City, South Korea, ordered seven Ecospeed F machining centers from Dorries Scharmann Technologie (DST) GmbH. The milling centers will be used to machine the wing ribs on the Airbus A 350 XWB.
With Sprint Z3 parallel kinematic machining heads made for cutting aluminum aircraft structures, the machines accommodate workpiece sizes up to a maximum of 2,000 mm by 6,000 mm. C axes are incorporated into the machine heads for positioning during angular drilling and milling.
The heads allow the machines to remove material at any dihedral angle between -130 degrees and +130 degrees, and the heads use tool interfaces as main spindles and can be interchanged automatically. This means that with 5-sided machining, the Ecospeed Fs offer more complex options than conventional milling machines, with interference contours between tool shafts and machining heads of only 50 mm.
Ecospeed F 120-kW spindles run at 30,000 rpm with maximum torques of 83 Nm. This, combined with Sprint Z3 heads, allows for higher feedrates than conventional machines, reported DST. Each machine also features a rack-type tool magazine with 125 positions, a vacuum workpiece clamping system, video monitoring and Siemens Sinumerik 840 D control system.
DST will deliver the first Ecospeed F to South Korea in November 2009, and the last in January 2014.
