CompositesWorld
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31 CompositesWorld.com NEWS N E W S N S N E W S E N W S W of all, the facility features space, and plenty of it, to accommodate fabrication of very large parts. And within that spacious environ- ment, says Blair, Exelis has the room to invest in new equipment and develop the additional expertise that the aerospace industry might demand. "You have to build it and they will come," Blair asserts. "If you want to do automated fber placement, you need to invest — invest in capability, machines and people." At the heart of this investment are two large machines. Te frst is a dual-station Fives Cincinnati (Hebron, KY, US) VIPER AFP machine, capable of laying down up to 32 tows of 3.2-mm carbon fber. At the time of CW's visit, Exelis was using this machine to demonstrate the capability to mold the upper wingskin of the F-35 Lightning II. Exelis hopes that it will win work fabricating this structure. Te second machine is a Fives dual-station, gantry-style automated contour tape layer, with an 18.3 by 4.9 by 1.2m build envelope and the capacity to place 76-, 152- or 305-mm wide tape (top photo, p. 32). Tis machine is being used to demonstrate Exelis' fat-panel manufacturing capability for a number of aircraft components, including horizontal and vertical tail structures. People-powered production Adjacent to the fber- and tape-placement space is Exelis' 1,850m 2 cleanroom, where technicians focus on hand layup of F-35 access covers, blade seals and wingskins, CH-53K sponsons and tails (vertical and horizontal), and S-76 helicopter rotor blades and fex beams. Te room features four tool prep bays that each feed one of four production lines (cutting tables), with 12 workstations on each line. Prepreg is supplied from three freezers that line the clean- room's back wall, and fnished layups are transferred immediately to autoclaves located in an adjacent space. Te work in the clean- room is team-based, and Exelis has given employees in this area some ownership: "Te people working closest to the product are the smartest about that product," contends Darin Friess, director of engi- neering. For that reason, they are given a measure of authority and operate with a degree of autonomy. "Tey've devel- oped their own kanban and troubleshooting," he says, adding, "Tey are always looking for ideas to continuously improve." Exelis operates six autoclaves in Salt Lake City — four from ASC Process Systems (Valencia, CA, US), one from Taricco Corp. (Long Beach, CA, US) and one from American Autoclave (Jasper, GA, US). Tey range in size from 0.9 by 1.5m to 4.6 by 15.2m. Emphasis on AFP Capabilities Exelis is emphasizing in the CDMC its ability to meet automated fber placement (AFP) appli- cation requirements. Here, a Fives Cincinnati (formerly MAG, Hebron, KY, US) VIPER AFP unit lays down prepreg for a carbon fber laminate. Exelis "Struts" Its Stuff Struts like this one are manufactured by Exelis for the Airbus A380 main foor support system. Exelis manufactures 95 struts per shipset for the aircraft. Read this article online | short.compositesworld.com/ExelisTour Read more about the growing market for composite plugs in the oil & gas arena online in the following: "A critical market sector: Downhole composites in oil and gas" short.compositesworld.com/FracPlug "Composites boon from hydraulic fracturing?" short.compositesworld.com/CompFrac Exelis Aerostructures