Aerospace is pivotal in driving cutting tool technology forward

In this article, tooling specialist Iscar discusses how pivotal the aerospace industry is in driving cutting tool technology forward, describing its influence as being both challenging and inspiring.

The aerospace industry is not only one of the largest consumers of cutting tools but also one of the most important driving factors for cutting tool development. The industry features continuous efforts aimed at improving aircraft component manufacturing efficiency, increasing flight safety, and reducing potential environmental damage.

To achieve these goals, the aerospace sector must constantly improve the design of aircraft engines and airframe structural elements to increase the protection of the aircraft from the damaging action of such dangerous factors as lightning and icing.

This in turn has resulted in a series of industry demands, including the introduction of engineering materials that require new production technologies, developing appropriate machinery and cutting tools. The aircraft manufacturer has to deal with complex parts, which are produced from various materials with the use of different machining strategies. This is why the aerospace industry is considered as a powerful and leading force for progress in cutting tool development.

Many materials used for manufacturing aircraft components have poor machinability. Titanium with its impressive strength-to-weight ratio, high temperature superalloys (HTSA) that do not lose their strength under high thermal load, and composites are difficult-to-cut materials.

In order to increase output rate and improve productivity, aerospace component manufacturers must use machine tools capable of implementing advanced machining operations. In such conditions, the role of cutting tools is significantly increased; however cutting tools can represent the weakest link in the whole manufacturing system due to their low durability as a system element, which can decrease productivity.

Customers from the aerospace sector expect higher levels of performance and reliability from cutting tools and tool manufacturers have been both challenged and inspired, in terms of developing and integrating sometimes unconventional solutions into their products to meet these expectations.

 

Read More: pesmedia.com