For commercial airlines the "turn-around-time" (TAT) for refurbishing engines is critical. With a requirement for over 40 fixtures the Erowa MTS quick change zero point tooling system made a good commercial justification. Aylesbury based TTL Ltd have gained a worldwide reputation for their customised software systems for the gas turbine industry. With the additional in-house capabilities for fixture design and manufacture, TTL provide complete solutions in their core area of adaptive machining technology.
For commercial airlines the “turn-around-time” (TAT) for refurbishing engines is critical so the project objectives for Lufthansa Technik, Hamburg, was to replace the mainly manual operation of remachining engine blades with an automated 5 axis machining solution.
The proposed solution, put forward by TTL, included precise fixturing of the blades, detailed probing of each part and bespoke software to adapt the machining program. With a requirement for over 40 fixtures a quick change zero point tooling system was included. Good mechanical design, a bespoke software package and the Erowa MTS zero point tooling system provided an engineering solution with strong economic justification.
The Erowa MTS tooling system provided the basis for the in-house built fixturing system. With the MTS base mounted on each of the 5 axis machines any of the 40+ fixtures can be changed in seconds with precision and no realignment. Each fixture requires only 4 positioning spigots mounted to the underside to provide a cost effective solution for such a large number of fixtures. An air supply was also provided through the Erowa base as an important feature of the fixturing system.
“The Erowa MTS system played an important part in this project” says Paul Walton, Managing Director of TTL. “With the additional capability of fully automated pallet changing, future projects can be developed using our core expertise linked to a good commercial justification”
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