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Technology update
Typhoon tooling
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BAe uses over 16,000 tools for manufacturing its portion of Eurofighter Typhoon.
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Over 16,000 tools are required for British Aerospace's share of the Eurofighter Typhoon manufacturing program at its Samlesbury and Warton facility in northwest England. The most complex of these are being produced on site.
BAe regards Samlesbury as one of the most advanced aerospace manufacturing centers in the world in terms of systems and capability to meet the particular needs of a highly complex and often demanding multinational program. According to BAe, one of the key design features for Eurofighter is interchangeability. It has produced a requirement for any one panel or structure to be able to fit any of the 620 Typhoons on order. This demands "unique" levels of accuracy in the manufacturing process. Samlesbury has invested in two Interchangeability Machines, capable of accepting a complete front fuselage assembly for high accuracy drilling and countersinking.
Coordinate measuring machine in BAe's High Tech Tooling Facility (HTTF) at Samlesbury checks the contour of a composite mold tool.
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Under the Eurofighter workshare agreement, which is based on the number of aircraft each partner will buy, BAe is responsible for the front and rear fuselage, canopy, foreplanes, vertical stabilizer, and other detail parts of the airframe. A high percentage of the airframe uses carbon-fiber composites (CFC). BAe says this extensive use of CFC presents a particular manufacturing challenge. Unlike metal, once made, CFC assemblies cannot be reshaped, so right-first-time manufacture is essential.
Central to the work at Samlesbury are two, five-axis machining centers together with laser tracker systems to build assembly jigs without the need to manufacture master gauges. BAe also emphasizes the importance of computer-generated design data to form the basis of machining programs. Virtual simulation has been used to validate the machining process and prove the data before metal is cut. The facility also has three Mitsui Seiki five-axis horizontal machining centers which form part of the machining capability for detail parts.
Two Eurofighter Typhoon engine bay doors are in the automatic drill riveting machine at BAe Samlesbury.
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In support of the Eurofighter program, Samlesbury has an Engineering Assembly Building where engineers from all disciplines are collocated in integrated product teams. BAe says the facility brings together all the elements of design, planning, and engineering, plus production facilities.
Stuart Birch
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