The Complete Guide of Aerospace Machining

Table of Contents

As a manufacturer looking into aerospace machining but is confused with all the technical terms and jargon, there is the possibility of dumping the idea without a simple but comprehensive guide. Going through some materials online could make matters even worse, and we know because we also have had our fair share of past misperceptions going through tons of materials online with no luck. Hence, this post aims to give you both a comprehensive and easy-to-understand version of the most important facts about aerospace machining. 

Aerospace Machining

I. What Is an Aerospace Machine Shop?

From planning to manufacturing, every element and component of an aircraft demands extreme precision. The available high-quality standards for the aerospace sector are the cause for this high degree of precision. However, where most of the production of aerospace components happens is in the aerospace machine shop. Therefore, professionals manning machinery and manufacturing equipment in the machine shop must meet stringent specifications with little or no tolerance for errors. Therefore, the importance of a machine shop in the aerospace industry cannot be underestimated. To achieve the high durability and component performance required for the aerospace industry, sophisticated machinery and manufacturing methods like CNC machining are basic requirements.

Furthermore, parameters such as temperature, wind speed, and pressure are critical in designing and manufacturing aerospace components, considering that these parameters are sometimes extreme. Also, operating environments for the components can shift from mild to very harsh, with the potential to cause corrosion to unprotected parts. Hence, the machine shop is responsible for ensuring that the aerospace components meet the requirements of strength and durability for the components to function reliably. Meeting these high-quality requirements is also necessary, as the safety of passengers and crew is paramount in the aerospace industry. Ultimately, having a team of highly skilled machinists and sophisticated equipment is never enough. Adhering to industry standards of quality and safety in combination with a competent team that is adequately equipped will often get the job done.

II. What Are the Aerospace Machining Structural Elements?

Every part of the aerospace engine, from tiny bolts to more complex geometrical parts, is important as a structural member. Hence, there is a need to design very durable parts that are light and can survive the pressures of flying in extreme conditions. Aerospace parts, including gears, engines, wings, and ‘rotables,’ are part of aerospace structural components. In essence, the machinist’s job involves determining the most suitable machining methods to produce the different shapes and complex designs of the several structural components that make up the aircraft.

A primary structural part in aerospace engineering is the airframe which is concerned with the skeletal formation of the aircraft. This structural part often includes other aggregating components, such as the tail and the wings. Other adjoining parts of the aircraft often rely on the stability and durability of the airframe as these other components are attached to the airframe. Consequently, it is even more critical for the airframe to meet the tight tolerances of errors provided by industry standards and codes.

Again, the engine is a key structural member in aerospace machining. These engines often consist of other parts like gears, propellers, and sometimes even turbines that must meet design specifications with the high precision expected for structural aerospace components. The engine must also be machined to adequately handle the vibrations, heat, and wind pressure generated while the aircraft is in flight.

Another critical aerospace structural component is the landing gear, which is responsible for the safe landing of the aircraft and a successful take off. These components often include struts, tires, shocks, and wheels. They are usually machined with high precision to reliably handle the weight of a moving aircraft while landing or taking off.

Other important components that contribute to the structural integrity of the aircraft include fastening components such as bolts and nuts, rivets, and bearings. These components ensure other parts are held firmly together when experiencing the effect of extreme pressures associated with flying an aircraft.

III. How Does Aerospace Machining Minimize Time?

In aerospace manufacturing and other manufacturing sectors, time-wasting is seriously frowned upon because it reduces the facility’s overall productivity. Especially for the aerospace industry, where unfavorable weather conditions are critical considerations for efficiency, minimizing production time is often seen as time gained and an indication of improved efficiency.

Aerospace machining helps to save time in a variety of ways, including the use of modern production technologies. Rapid prototyping, 3D printing, and CNC machining are some of the advanced techniques used to save production time in the aerospace industry. These methods offer machinists a speedy way of getting things done compared to slower traditional methods, especially when needing to produce and test intricately designed components.

Automation is another effective way machinists use to save time in aerospace manufacturing. This method eliminates the use of manual machine operation. Using automated production lines also increases efficiency and removes the human error factor as the activities are programmed into a computer.

Aerospace Machining

IV. How Does Aerospace Machining Help You Achieve Superior Sustained Dynamic Accuracy?

Aircraft machining has played a critical role in the manufacture of some of the most complicated and intricate components utilized in the aircraft industry. It has also added several advantages to the manufacturing process in this industry, including superior and sustained dynamic accuracy. However, certain conditions need to be met to achieve this level of accuracy.

Chief among these conditions is selecting quality and suitable materials for the components, with the most popular materials being aluminum, fiber, and steel. These materials are usually favored for their strength and durability. Additionally, the materials must meet weight requirements which are often critical for ease of manufacturing and machining, which brings us to the next condition.

Selecting suitable tools, manufacturing equipment, and methods is essential to achieving sustained dynamic accuracy. Understanding the materials’ nature and technical details will help identify the right tools required to manufacture these aerospace elements with the right precision. It also saves time often wasted using ineffective tools and methods. Moreover, software integration like CMMs (coordinate measuring machines) enables machinists and aerospace manufacturers to produce precision parts that meet the highest industry quality standards.

V. How Is Aerospace Machining a Low-Cost Solution for Complex Parts?

Aerospace machining allows manufacturers to produce some of the most complex parts that are pieced together to produce the most effective aircraft. Nevertheless, manufacturers always seek the most cost-effective techniques to produce these complex parts while maximizing their profit margins. Consequently, certain complex parts, including heads, threaded shanks, and points, are some of the components that benefit from using aerospace machining.

  • Head: These are the topmost components that allow adding other adjoining components. Hence, ensuring intricate details of these head parts are accurate is essential. Aerospace machining allows machinists to manufacture these head components with high precision without reworks or refabrications. The reason is that they utilize computerized machines like CNC and 3D printing that are precise. The usage of these machines results in huge savings for aerospace manufacturers.
  • Threaded shank:  Threaded shanks are another domain in which aerospace machining flourishes. A threaded shank is an individual segment that Has been threaded to link with other parts that make up the component. The threading process necessitates exact cutting and forming, which can be difficult without specific machinery.

Precision cutting and shaping capabilities provided by aerospace machining solve this difficulty. This enables the production of precise and consistent threaded shanks, guaranteeing that every manufactured item fits the specified parameters.

  • Point: Aerospace machining is a great way to create complicated component points. Points are sharp, tapered extremities of a component that require precision shaping and cutting to attain the required form and size.

Aerospace machining provides the precision and accuracy required to manufacture these complicated points effectively. This technique enables producers to make exact and consistent points, guaranteeing that every item produced meets the specified standards.

VI. What Materials Are Used for Aerospace Machining?

Due to their unique properties, certain materials have become a constant in the aerospace machining space. Most popular among these materials include aluminum, steel, and titanium, highlighted below.

Aluminum:

Aircraft machining includes mold design, machining, and molding diverse materials into complicated parts that fulfill the stringent needs of the aircraft industry. Aluminum remains among the most extensively used metals in aerospace machining. This is because it is light in weight, robust, and easy to manufacture, thus rendering it an appropriate choice for various aeronautical components.

Titanium:

Titanium is another prominent material used in aerospace machining. Titanium is generally renowned for its high strength-to-weight ratio and incredible corrosion resistance, making it a perfect choice for aerospace applications. It is especially ideal for excessive-temperature parts, including turbine blades and engine components.

Steel:

Another widely accepted material in aerospace machining is steel. This acceptability can be pinned to its robustness, durability, and wear-resistant properties, making it perfect for resisting the significant stresses accompanying aircraft components. These parts often include the wing spars and landing gears that are designed as structural components due to the stress level they are subjected to.

Aerospace Machining

VII. What Are the Benefits of Aerospace Machining?

A host of advantages can be attributed to the use of aerospace machining.

  1. Accuracy: The degree of accuracy that can be attained is one of the most significant advantages of aerospace machining. Aerospace components require extremely close tolerances, and aerospace machining can manufacture parts with millimeter-level accuracy.
  2. Efficiency: Aerospace machining is a rapid way to create complex components. It is feasible to make many identical components swiftly and correctly, which is vital in the aerospace sector, where time and cost are critical variables.
  3.  Versatility: Aerospace machining is a versatile technique that can produce various components. Whether it’s engine components, wing spars, or landing gear, aerospace machining can manufacture high-quality parts that fulfill the industry’s stringent requirements.
  4. Quality: Aerospace machining may produce parts of excellent quality. Each item must fulfill tight quality requirements due to the usage of high-precision technology and the skills of qualified machinists.
  5. Material selection: Aerospace machining enables you to work with a variety of materials. Aerospace machining offers an array of high-quality components using different materials to achieve this, especially with materials like aluminum, titanium, or steel.
  6. Innovation: aeronautical machining contributes significantly to the development of novel aeronautical technology. Machinists continually push the limits of what is possible, creating new techniques and procedures that enable the fabrication of progressively more complicated and sophisticated aerospace components.

VIII. What Is the Aerospace Machining Process?

Aerospace machining is a challenging procedure that demands extreme precision and attention to detail. It is a vital part of the aerospace sector that generally follows these highlighted processes.

  1. Design: The design phase is the initial stage in the aerospace machining process. Engineers often rely on computer-aided design software to produce accurate models for the project to achieve a perfect component during manufacturing.
  2. Material selection: After the design is finished, the following step is to choose the right materials for the component. Material selection is crucial since each material has various qualities that impact the final product’s performance and durability.
  3. Machining: The machining process begins after the design and material selection. This entails shaping and cutting the material into the appropriate shape using high-precision technology, such as CNC machines.
  4. Finishing: Polishing, deburring, and surface treatment may be used to guarantee that the finished product fulfills the needed criteria.
  5. Quality control: Quality control is a critical component of the aerospace machining process. Inspectors scrutinize every part of the component using standard testing methods to guarantee that machined components fulfill the designed specifications and requirements.
  6. Assembly: Finally, the machined components are put together to form the finished product, which might be an engine, a wing, or landing gear.

IX. What Is Aerospace Machining With 5-Axis CNC?

Being an advanced automated process has made the 5-axis CNC (Computer Numerical Control) technique appealing. Let’s carefully consider this technology below.

  • What is a 5-axis CNC? 

This advanced machining tool ensures a highly precise and accurate aerospace component. Complicated machining procedures in producing aerospace components become easy and stress-free with its ability to maneuver the workpiece in 5 directions.

  • The advantages of 5-axis CNC machining:

The excellent precision of 5-axis CNC machining is one of the numerous advantages of employing it while making aircraft components. The importance of high precision cannot be overemphasized, considering that the aerospace industry has very stringent tolerances, and making errors is never an option. Also, the time and money saved with aerospace machining are huge compared to the usual old techniques and methods.

  • The 5-axis CNC machining process:

The 5-axis CNC machining process requires specialized software that produces tool paths depending on the component’s design. The CNC machine then uses these tool paths to make accurate cuts on the workpiece, which may be rotated and tilted to generate complicated shapes. This makes it possible to manufacture a highly accurate component that meets the tight tolerances for errors given by industry standards and specifications.

  • Applications of 5-axis CNC machining: 5-axis CNC machining in aerospace produces a broad range of components such as engine parts, turbine blades, and wing spars. In the end, this method makes the manufacture of complex geometries look like child’s play as it is less stressful than traditional methods and equipment.
  • The future of 5-axis CNC machining: The possibility in the future with 5-axis CNC machining will be almost limitless, with increased capacity to produce sophisticated aerospace components with even less effort pushing the frontiers of the aerospace industry even further.

X. How Important Are Tight Tolerances in Aerospace Machining?

Tight tolerances are critical to aircraft safety and dependability, and their value cannot be emphasized. Let’s critically consider its significance in the aerospace industry.

  1. Safety and Reliability: The guarantee that the product will meet safety and reliability benchmarks comes with the tight tolerance of aerospace design standards and specifications. One tiny variance in manufacturing a designed aerospace component can result in fatal consequences, which justifies the need for these stringent error margins.
  2. Quality: high-quality manufacturing is also achievable with tight tolerances, as there is no room for defects. Tight tolerances are often programmed into computerized equipment like CNC machines to limit errors.
  3. Performance: An increase in efficiency of each aerospace component is also delivered because of the tight tolerances followed during their production. This efficiency results in optimal performances of units, modules, and entire aerospace systems.
  4. Cost Savings: Errors often lead to rework and repairs, which usually comes with more cost that can quickly rack up depending on the nature and size of the error. Tight tolerances often improve production quality, reducing the need for repairs and rework and consequently saving huge costs.
  5. Innovation: Advancements in manufacturing, for instance, plastic injection molding, comes with the possibility of tighter tolerances making the ability to innovate with other materials and manufacturing methods achievable.

XI. How Is Complex Part Surface Handled in Aerospace Machining?

Performing any machine procedure can be a little tricky, especially when machining complex shapes. However, the processes shown below clearly demonstrate how aerospace machining handles complicated component surfaces.

  • 3D Modeling and Simulation: Due to rapid technological advancement, a 3D printing machine is now a useful tool for quickly producing a prototype along with computer applications to simulate and assess the component’s surface finish.
  • High-Speed Machining: Sophisticated cutting tools often programmed with computers help in the rapid and accurate machining of complex parts and surfaces.
  • Multi-Axis Machining: The cutting used in this method employs machines that can cut components from multiple directions, making it possible to produce complex shapes and patterns.
  • Surface Finishing: This step comes after the machining process to ensure that the surface meets the required finishing specified in the design. Achieving the desired finish may require sandblasting, polishing, and grinding.
  • Inspection and Quality Control: the last step required is quality inspection and assessment to ensure the finished product meets the required quality standards. Using tools like CMM (coordinate measuring machines) often helps to accurately ascertain the component’s quality level.

XII. How Do You Enhance the Quality of Aerospace Machining?

High precision and a great eye for detail are only two of the factors that make aerospace machining so difficult. However, you can enhance its quality following the below-highlighted steps.

  1. Procuring sophisticated equipment with the latest technology can increase output in terms of quality and accuracy.
  2. Investing in education and training helps you keep up with the latest advancement in manufacturing methods and technology, increasing the quality of output.
  3. A robust quality assurance and control system will help enhance the quality of aerospace machining because it will help identify potential areas that can cause defects.
  4. A culture of quality manufacturing among employees, if encouraged and pursued vigorously, can help increase output quality.
Aerospace Machining

XIII. What Role Does CNC Play in Aerospace Machining?

CNC (Computer Numerical Control) is an innovative production technology that has transformed the aerospace machining environment by providing several advantages over older approaches. Its role is majorly in advancing aerospace manufacturing quality and making huge savings in cost and time. However, these are just scratching the surface.

Aerospace production, particularly CNC machining, delivers a high level of accuracy in an industry that values precision. Also, producing aerospace elements with intricate details becomes easy when using CNC machining as you only need to enter the design parameters into the computer, and you can rest easy.

Again, CNC in aerospace machining reduces the tendency to make errors in the production process since it is a very efficient method of manufacturing aerospace components.

Furthermore, it plays a huge role in guaranteeing consistency of quality and repeatability of the manufacturing process.

XIV. How Can You Provide Aerospace Machining Design Freedom While Maintaining Performance?

Freedom in design allows for several opportunities, including innovation and the production of intricate shapes and forms. However, it can be challenging when you must meet specific performance and production effectiveness levels.

A good grasp of the stringent aerospace industry requirements is the first step to achieving an acceptable level of freedom. This understanding also trickles down to the purpose and function of the individual aerospace component, as each has different tolerances based on its function.

Also, using simulation software and applications can give you a high degree of freedom during design as you can optimize the production process using CAD and CAM applications. Other ways of achieving both performance and freedom in aerospace machining include engaging experienced machinists and engineers and using the latest technology and equipment. Skilled professionals employ their expertise in recognizing issues before they become critical, especially during the design phase.

XV. How Do You Offer the Best Aerospace Machining Service?

Being the best aerospace machining service provider involves meeting tight industry requirements.

The use of specialized equipment with the latest technological advancement is the first requirement you must meet to be the best in the industry. It helps you produce a variety of aerospace components, from the simplest to the most complex.

Also, engaging proficient and experienced hands is another ingredient that contributes immensely to being the best aerospace machining service provider. Their experiences with industry requirements, specifications, and standards are critical in giving the best output.

Additionally, having a great customer care team goes a long way to secure your place as the best in the industry. Championing quality manufacturing at all times is the final ingredient that ensures you are the best in offering aerospace machining services.

XVI. What Aerospace Machining Capabilities Do You Have?

The capability of any aerospace machining facility is based on several factors, the chief of which is the ability to manufacture aerospace components that meet specified design parameters and quality. Many other indicators, however, are indicative of the expertise of an aerospace machining plant. These factors include the ability to manufacture various aerospace parts like flanges, shafts, rotor hubs, and transmission housing.

Another important factor is the experience of an aerospace machining service provider, both as an entity and individually, since it gives confidence to clients.

Also, the type of manufacturing equipment employed is another critical consideration. Using a CNC machine and other state-of-the-art equipment like 5-axis machining centers makes it easier, faster, and more accurate to manufacture aerospace parts.

Furthermore, the ability to work with several materials like aluminum, steel, and titanium and offer secondary services like surface finish, assembling, and painting shows capacity.

Additionally, a commitment to continuous improvement of processes is a good indication of a service provider capable of tackling challenges both presently and in the future.

Author:

Gary Liao

Gary Liao

Gary Liao is the Engineering Manager of TDL Company and has more than 20 years of mold design experience.

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