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CATIA V5 Helps Airbus A380 Super-Jumbo Take Flight

 
   

At 23 metres to 33 metres long and up to 2.5 metres wide, the top wing skins on the Airbus A380 super-jumbo, due to make its maiden flight in 2005, will be the largest components ever produced by the creep-forming process. The first set of wings was recently completed at the company's site at Broughton, North Wales.

The tooling to produce these components was designed by South Yorkshire engineering consultancy Bennett Associates using one of the first releases of CATIA version 5 developed by Dassault Systhmes. While Airbus itself had standardised on CATIA version 4, Bennetts opted for version 5 because of its greater flexibility when handling large quantities of data and its ability to run customised programmes.

The eight forming tools designed by Bennetts, one for each skin panel, involve eight heavy-duty steel bases on to which some 280 ribs are mounted, which produce the finished shape required. This concept allowed a large proportion of each tool to be manufactured while the final wing designs were being completed and will also allow any future changes in design and materials to be accommodated relatively quickly and economically. Each item is about 40 metres long and weighs 50 tonnes.

The wing data supplied by Airbus from which Bennetts had to design the tooling involved some 500,000 reference points for each surface shape, one cloud defining the global surface and a second the edges.

 
   
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For more information, contact us on 01709-373782.

Related links:
.Airbus A380 creep forming tools for wing skins
.Airbus A380 takes Creep Forming to New Levels
 

Airbus A380 in flight
Airbus A380 in flight

CAD image of the creep forming tool for panel 1 of the Airbus A380 wing skins
CAD image of the creep forming tool for panel 1 of the Airbus A380 wing skins, showing the aluminium skin (dark grey) resting on the forming surface, which is supported by laser-cut steel ribs. The forming tool stands on a steel deck (pale grey),
and the whole assembly is moved on bogie units (shown in green).