In civil aircraft manufacture, the growing demands of the airlines for higher performance and cost reduction progressively increase the pressure for continuous development of the products. The aircraft structure contributes to this development by reduction of the structural weight and by cutting both manufacturing and maintenance costs. The position of metals technologies against composite technologies was strengthened recently by the technology step realized with the first application of the laser beam welding in the primary aircraft structures. The present paper reviews the application of CO2-laser welding of skin-stringer joints for fuselage panels in the A318. The material for skin and stringer is the weldable high-performance alloy AA6013. It is welded in T4 condition after the 3D stretch forming of the sheet, followed by a temper and quench treatment for a T6 condition. In order to avoid hot cracking, AlSi12 filler wire is used. The thickness of the stringers is between 1.8 and 4.4 mm, and it may vary continuously so that the welding parameters will have to be adapted during the welding process. Measures against distortion and options for quality control (on-line-, off-line monitoring) are outlined. In order to replace riveting, both laser beam welding and friction stir welding (FSW) are under investigation for panel-to-panel butt joints with a typical sheet thickness of up to 6 mm. As FSW typically provide a static level of 90% for precipitation hardening high strength alloys, also other applications of FSW (fuselage, wing and center wing box) were investigated. For butt joints in the thickness of up to 6 mm, investigations into both single sided laser and hybrid welding processes have been conducted using a variety of diffcrent high power laser sources. One of the latest developments in solid state lasers is the high power fiber laser. It allows a further significant increase of the welding speed for the welding of thicker sheet material. A high power CO2 laser with double focus optics was used for butt welding of AA6065 material. Aspects of hybrid welding and two-sided hybrid-welding of 12 mm thick sections of AA2024 material using AlSi12 filler wire are finally characterised.
Innovative welding strategies for the manufacture of large aircraft
2004
17 Seiten, 24 Bilder, 1 Tabelle, 8 Quellen
Conference paper
English
Luftfahrtindustrie , Kostensenkung , Gewichtseinsparung , Fertigung , Laserstrahlschweißen , Flugzeugrumpf , CO2-Laser , T-Stoß , Aluminiumlegierung , Schweißzusatzwerkstoff , Prozessüberwachung , Stumpfstoß , Rührreibschweißen , Grobblech , Faserlaser , Schweißgeschwindigkeit , zweiseitiges Schweißen
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