CompositesWorld
Issue link: https://cw.epubxp.com/i/697353
JULY 2016 34 CompositesWorld PLANT TOUR by 1.4m) autoclave also is available. "We are currently working two shifts, but can staf up as needed to keep up with peaks," says Lopez. (Some work — particularly, the monolithic carbon/epoxy curved structural beams — is moving to Technobahia for processing in that building's 7m by 3m Olmar autoclave.) From the autoclave, cured parts travel to an automated C-scan nondestructive testing (NDT) gantry supplied by Tecnatom SA (San Sebastian de Los Reyes, Spain). Here, says Gonce, 100% of the plant's production is checked. To verify the C-scan results, selected parts undergo additional pulse-echo A-scan inspection: technicians use handheld scanners from Olympus (Waltham, MA, US). Lopez says that for selected Airbus A350 parts, new statistical methods have reduced the C-scan load, but periodic destructive tests are required in those cases. Lopez explains that for some parts, C-Scan has been removed, and for others, it has been reduced to one part in fve. But if parts don't pass destructive tests? C-Scans of every part are back in force. "If, in any case, the testing goes wrong," she notes, "you have to retest all from the beginning, until you have, again, fve consecu- tive [destructive] tests with good results." After testing, parts undergo required fnishing. In some cases, that means application of a Tedlar flm or, for cored parts, edge sealing. When painting is necessary, that is currently performed by a subcontractor, but an in-house paint shop is planned, says Lopez. Also currently outsourced but coming in, is part trimming. A newly installed EPMM 25 CNC machining center (European Portal Milling Machine, Seville, Spain) is still undergoing testing but will be in use later this year. Lopez shows CW trim tool proto- types that Carbures will produce from Necuron epoxy tooling board (Neucumer GmbH, Bohmte, Germany) to assist with trimming. Finally, parts undergo a metrology check, for which technicians use a laser tracker from Faro Technologies (Lake Mary, FL, US). "Carbures Jerez has experienced an aggressive ramp-up rate for production," says Lopez. "We're currently at Rate 6 [six shipsets per month] for Airbus components, or about 60% of our capacity." Gonce adds that although the Airbus A320 has fewer composite components than other craft, it has the more demanding produc- tion rate, and the plant will be close to 100% capacity in 2017. When queried about the potential for robotics at the plant, Lopez says that automated layup has been considered, but right now, "it's difcult to make the numbers work. We're not there yet. But we foresee resin transfer molding [RTM] as a potential." Tat approach would ft with Carbures' Rapid Multi-injec- tion Compression Process (RMCP), an automated process under construction at the company's Mobility facility (more on RMCP below). Out-of-autoclave (OOA) processing of thermoplastics is another possibility, given testing currently ongoing at Airbus and Tier 1 customer Stelia (Toulouse, France). Illescas — part of the Airbus aerospace cluster Te Carbures Illescas plant, located in the southern outskirts of Madrid, is just down the street from the Airbus wing assembly plant CW visited in 2012 (see Learn More, p. 38). Tere, CW is met by Arturo Pastor, Carbures' quality director for the Aero- space and Defense business (including China), and Isabel Plazas, Illescas' manufacturing engineering director. Previously operated Jerez de la Frontera: Cored carbon aerocomposites The view from the second story of the Jerez de la Frontera facility foor, with fnished parts in the foreground. This facility makes mostly cored carbon parts for Airbus commercial planes, Airbus Defense & Space, and several Tier 1 aerospace customers. Source | CW / Photo | Sara Black Cleanroom crews handle high-speed hand layup The cleanroom at the Jerez plant has teams of layup technicians rapidly assem- bling layups, cut on a Zünd Systemtechnik AG (Altstätten, Switzerland) automated cutting table and kitted in-house. Layups are vacuum bagged for autoclave cure. Source | CW / Photo | Sara Black C-scan NDT an aerocomposites quality keystone An automated C-scan nondestructive testing (NDT) gantry machine, supplied by Technatom (San Sebastian de Los Reyes, Spain), runs non-stop in the nondestruc- tive inspection (NDI) area of the Jerez plant. Source | CW / Photo | Sara Black