The discussion about the emission of greenhouse gases forces public aviation transportation to reduce its fuel consumption dramatically. An increased competition, often driven by so-called 'Low Budget Airlines', requires additional cost reductions. To face these challenges the aviation industry develops highly integrated light weight structures on the one hand and tends towards an optimization and automation of its production on the other hand. This is the starting point of the EC-founded project ECOSHAPE. One of the most cost intensive production steps is the forming of complex parts, e. g. fuselage panels, due to the high tool costs. Thus, a forming process with a flexible tool useable for different geometries is striven. Due to the high degree of automation especially laser beam forming (LBF] should be developed as a useful application. The target of ECOSHAPE was to build up the fundamental know-how for an industrial LBF process which enables most pre-production steps to be done in flat condition due to a minimum of machining costs, technological complexity, and a maximum of robustness and reliability. Concerning the material the LBF shows high potential for the implementation into the production of the aviation industry. With two representative alloys of the 6xxx aluminum alloy group the relevant mechanical properties have been tested. All properties stay below the cut off threshold of 10% reduction. For the implementation into a production line an automatic control loop was developed. Influences on the geometry of pre-production steps are detected by a triangulation system. A final measurement of the longitudinal stress distribution after welding of the stringers has to be done. The results of the measurements of the longitudinal stress distributions have to be analyzed and tested using the complex specimens. The comparison to conventional production processes, e. g. stretch forming, will indicate the economical potential.
Laser beam forming of complex aluminum fuselage structures
Laserstrahlumformen komplexer Flugzeugrumpfstrukturen aus Aluminium
2007
10 Seiten, 10 Bilder, 9 Quellen
Conference paper
English
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