Atkins Rotherham

Engineering Design Consultants

Atkins - the official engineering design services provider for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
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Airbus A380 - Creep forming tools for wing skins

 
   


Building the largest passenger aircraft the world is not simply a case of scaling up existing parts, bolting everything together and taking to the air.

At every stage, for virtually every component, a major rethink is required. Manufacturing wing panels for the forthcoming A380 Airbus that is longer than even a Boeing 747 for example, was the problem faced by Yorkshire engineering consultants Bennett Associates.

The design of the aluminium skins that go to make up the 45m long wings calls for them to be manufactured in one length. This allows the aircraft's designers to reduce component weight whilst at the same time achieving the necessary performance criteria. Welding or riveting panels together would also create unacceptable areas of stress in the metal skin on a wing of this size. Creep forming is the chosen method of manufacture - a process that creates a formed finished skin with very little inherent stress.

The process itself does however bring its own problems in predicting the exact dimensions of the finished component when released from the tool. With an item the size of the A380 Airbus wing skin the predictions become even more difficult. To overcome the problem Bennett Associates has designed adjustable creep-forming tooling that will allow compensations to be made during production trials prior to the start of first article manufacture.

Bennett Associates has not only designed the creep-forming tooling but also the entire component handling and manufacturing system for the wing skins at the purpose built facility at the Airbus site at Broughton, Chester.




For more information, contact us on 01709-373782


Related links:
.Bennett Associates Design Airbus A380 wing skin creep forming facility
.First Fruits of Rotherham Firm's Input into Airbus Super-Jumbo
.CATIA V5 Helps Airbus A380 Super-Jumbo Take Flight









M G Bennett and Associates Ltd is now part of the Atkins - the official engineering design services provider for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Group
Atkins - the official engineering design services provider for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games


 
Airbus A380 in flight
Airbus A380 in flight

Wrapping a wing skin and tool before creep forming in the autoclave
Airbus A380 in flight
Delivering a panel to the creep forming tool
     
View of the internal face of a starboard wing skin panel before creep forming
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)
CAD image of the panel 1 creep forming tool with the top surface removed to show the laser-cut ribs that create the finished shape
     
Click thumbnail for larger image

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