CompositesWorld
Issue link: https://cw.epubxp.com/i/450689
FEBRUARY 2015 32 CompositesWorld PLANT TOUR After cure, most parts are transferred to the machining shop for drilling, trimming, routing and cutting. Exelis operates eight 5-axis machining centers, including seven from Breton SpA (Castello di Godega, Italy) and one from Komo Machine Inc. (Lakewood, NJ, US), but most of the work done in this building runs on two Breton 1300 units, the facility's most fexible CNC centers. Exelis, says Friess, favors cutting tools supplied by Precorp (Spanish Fork, UT, US), but has been testing other cutters, including one from LMT Onsrud LP (Waukegan, IL, US) that has fared well. Nondestructive inspection is done at 10 work centers, ranging from single- to 5-axis capability, using methods that include pulse echo, through-transmission, hand-scan and bond-scan. One of the largest spaces at the CDMC facility is devoted to the assembly of a variety of structures for which the rest of the facility makes component parts. Tese include the vertical and horizontal tails and the sponsons for the CH-53K, for which Exelis fabricates a total of 193 diferent composite parts, made with prepreg supplied by Hexcel (Stamford, CT, US). Exelis has already manufactured seven shipsets of parts for Sikorsky, for the helicopter's system design and development phase. Tis will be followed by four more shipsets that will be used as test articles. Tis work, assuming positive test results, could be followed by contracts for low-rate production and, perhaps, rate production of up to two shipsets a month by 2021. Tight-tolerance Tape Laying The second largest machine in the CDMC is a Fives Cincinnati dual-station, gantry-style automated contour tape layer, with 18.3 by 4.9 by 1.2m build envelope and capacity for tape 76, 152 or 305 mm wide. The entire CDMC is organized to accommodate large-part, autoclave-based fabrication of tight-toler- ance aerospace structures. Part Inspection a Priority Exelis operates 10 nondestructive inspection (NDI) workstations in its Salt Lake City facilities. NDI technologies include pulse-echo, through- transmission, hand-scan and bond-scan systems. CDMC: All-autoclave-cured Production Although Exelis' braided products are used primarily in out-of-autoclave (OOA) processes, all of the fabrication in the CDMC is done with autoclave cure. The company operates six autoclaves, ranging in length from 1.5 to 15.2m.