Co-ordinator helps speed component production

A Trio motion co-ordinator has helped Eaton Aerospace to cut production times and set up costs associated with their range of flange clamps for the aerospace industry.

A Trio motion co-ordinator has helped Eaton Aerospace to cut production times and set up costs associated with their range of flange clamps for the aerospace industry.

Eaton Corp is a global leader in fluid power systems and services for industrial, mobile and aircraft equipment, electrical systems and components for power quality, distribution and control, automotive engine air management systems and powertrain controls for fuel economy, and intelligent drivetrain systems for fuel economy and safety in trucks.

Eaton has 51,000 employees and sells products to customers in more than 100 countries.

An important component of the company's fluid power segment is Eaton's aerospace business, which serves commercial and military aviation, space, military weapon systems, marine, off-road and other severe environment applications.

Eaton Aerospace is a leading designer, manufacturer and integrator of fluid power generation and conveyance, electromechanical actuation and motion control, electric distribution and control, cockpit controls and displays and fluid monitoring and sensor products and systems for a worldwide group of diverse customers.

For 80 years, Eaton has been the innovator and pioneering leader in the development of hydraulics and motion control components and systems.

Today Eaton is the premier technology supplier from the history-making 5000lb/in2 power generation and fluid conveyance system on the world's largest commercial aircraft, the Airbus A380, to the hydraulic power generation and wing distribution system on the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and to the nose wheel steering system on the NASA Space Shuttle.

The Redditch-based facility of this international company is responsible for the production of components for the aerospace industry, including a wide range of V-band assemblies marketed under the Aeroquip brand, which provide the connection mechanism between duct assemblies or a duct/tube to an accessory (such as a valve, pump, heat exchanger, manifold etc).

These assemblies are typically used in hot air applications, but may also be used for structural requirements.

V-band assemblies come in a variety of styles, using sheet-metal V-band clamps, sheet-metal V-band flanges or machined flanges.

An assembly typically consists of two flanges and a V-band clamp.

Eaton's Aeroquip assemblies have become industry standards and are widely used in aircraft ranging from general aviation to business jets to commercial jets to military aircraft.

Material types vary depending on the performance requirements, but common material types are 300 series CRES, high temperature and strength alloys such as A286 and Inconel and titanium for weight savings.

"With such a wide range of sizes and materials", commented Eaton's Production Engineer Reg Gardner, "we became increasingly aware of the relatively high cost of setting up for each type of clamp".

"Using conventional punch technology, we would have to change tooling for each batch".

"Small quantities of components naturally involved frequent tool changes, which in turn meant proportionally higher production costs and lower productivity".

"As a result, Eaton Aerospace decided to approach Kidderminster Engineering Services (KES) to jointly develop a machine which would reduce our production costs and substantially improve the flexibility of our clamp manufacturing capabilities".

KES operates from a modern, custom-designed 1000m2 facility and offers specialist engineering services to a wide range of manufacturing industries, producing unique solutions for applications where standard production machinery is unsuitable.

KES Managing Director Tony Pardoe took up the Eaton challenge with enthusiasm.

"Our initial discussions with Eaton revealed that a six station punch would provide the required flexibility, but we had a problem with making a complex system easy to operate", he commented.

"Our relationship with Lawrence Mummery-Smith at LMS Servo-Technics provided access to specialist programming expertise in the Trio Motion Technology MC206 motion co-ordinator and three CAN16 I/O modules which LMS recommended for this application".

Recognising the need to separate operator input from precision calculations on the sequence and positioning of the various punch shapes along the clamp strip, LMS Servo-Technics devised a deceptively simple menu-based program.

In essence, the operator initially has to enter a program number or part number, the overall length of the strip, gauge, width and number of holes.

In any order, the operator can then enter the distance measurement and punch station number to a total of 36 holes.

Additional information includes the tool number at each of the six stations.

Using the mathematical capabilities of the MC206 motion co-ordinator, the system automatically develops a fully working program with each hole arranged in its correct sequence.

This program is then saved to the MC206 or to a PC as required, and may then be called up at any time.

This makes changeovers to existing components very fast, normally limited only by the need to load a new material or width of strip metal.

An automatic feed facility further adds to the speed with which this can be accomplished.

The record of tool numbers and locations also simplifies the resetting of tools, effectively eliminating incorrect punch shapes and scrap production.

Mummery-Smith said: "I changed from recommending other motion control systems to the Trio products because I was impressed with the quality, value and features offered by the range".

"In particular, the ability to work seamlessly in a Windows environment is very important for many customers, and the many communications options allow integration into existing factory systems".

"The database and toolbox features are very good, and the built-in mathematics, especially the square root function, are faster and easier to use than many competitors".

"There is also the ability to interface with colour touch screens, which can be invaluable for making HMI easy, and of course, Trio offer their own VF displays with tactile keypads".

"The breadth and functionality of the range is highly attractive to systems integrators such as LMS Servo-Technics".

No machine is ever perfect, however.

The six station design, although ideal for the majority of components, proved to need modification when a wider range of clamps was designed.

Here the flexibility of the Trio motion co-ordinator was demonstrated when two of the fixed stations were changed.

The last two stations were equipped with pneumatic rams and fixtures to accommodate twin punch dies.

These slide sideways and interlocks ensure that they are correctly aligned before the machine can continue to operate, making it effectively into an eight station punch machine at minimal cost.

Additions to the programs were easily incorporated, and the three CAN16 I/O modules had sufficient spare capacity to manage the essential signals without modification.

The additional stations provide punches which, for instance, can profile and cut off both of the strip ends, indent dimples on each side of the strip, or allow identical keyholes to be produced in opposite directions.

During the development process, it was found that material type and gauge were critical factors in achieving the very high precision demanded by the aerospace industry.

For this reason, the program for each component includes a database of settings for each gauge of strip.

The data controls the way in which the motion co-ordinator feeds the strip rapidly into approximate position, checks against the program and infeed sensor, and then moves the strip slowly into position with an accuracy of better than 0.001in.

Attention to such fine detail makes extensive use of the capabilities of Trio motion co-ordinators, ensuring reliable operation at high levels of precision.

"The new machine can be programmed very quickly for each new job", concluded Eaton's Reg Gardner.

"This is important both for normal production, where we may produce many different batches of standard components each day, and for the frequent need to produce samples of new designs or preproduction prototypes".

"It has enabled us to deliver aircraft quality standards with significantly increased throughput and lower component costs".

"It has also improved our response to new customer needs".

"I am very impressed by the reliability of the Trio products allied to the proven design and manufacturing capabilities of Kidderminster Engineering Services and LMS Servo-Technics".

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