Public Funding for KUKA Systems UK Limited

The use and cost of Titanium (Ti) alloys in Aerospace continues to grow and escalate, putting ever more pressure on cost-effective manufacturing of parts in Ti. Near net shape forming technologies for Ti alloys are currently under development with the aim of building Ti parts rather than machining them out of solid. Most current approaches however are somewhat limited in terms of productivity, with material deposition rates of around 5kg/hr being common. Linear Friction Welding (LFW) is an innovative solid phase welding technology that is emerging as a new enabling technology for Ti near net shape manufacture. Capable of effective material deposition rates of 50kg/hr, together with excellent weld quality and process repeatability, LFW has the potential to be a game changing technology in this field. The TiFab project will develop and demonstrate Linear Friction Welding (LFW) technology for the cost effective manufacture of near net shape Ti alloy components and will support the ambitions of CAV, a UK tier 1 aerospace supplier, to grow their product offering..

An applied research project led by GKN Aerospace, supported by Thompson and University of Bimingham, taking an existing joining technique Linear Friction Welding (LFW), and applying it in a novel way to achieve near net shape forming of hard and soft metals, resulting in a step-change in UK manufacturing competitiveness. This approach enables significantly reduced raw material requirement and machining time/cost, delivering a much improved 'Buy to Fly' ratio and environmental sustainabilty. Environmental benefits will be achieved through the whole supply chain from reduced energy used during material supply and part manufacture. This advanced manufacturing technology will enable high value cost efficient environmentally beneficial manuf. to be exploited in the UK in an increasingly competitive global market.

The Project aims to develop a cost effective and novel Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) technique for the in-process examination of Friction Welds used in the fabrication of welded aluminium structures for the marine, rail, automotive and aerospace industries. The NDT development will be based on high frequency, oblique incident angle, Non-Linear Ultrasonic Testing (NLUT) that will have the capability of detecting early stage 'joint line defects' in the bond region (so called kissing bond) of the weld that has been inherently difficult to inspect because of the poor signal to noise ratio at the size of defects requiring detection against the weld material structure. Failure to detect the joint line defects at an early stage can lead to safety critical component failure with catastrophic consequences. The project will benefit UK industry by enabling the full potential of FSW and LFW to be exploited, this not having been previously possible due to the lack of commercial in-process NDT inspection technology.

Awaiting Public Summary

NGCW will ensure that mature technologies are available to enable the design, development, validation, manufacture, equipping and testing of lightweight aerodynamically efficient and economic to produce wings which are optimised with the overall aircraft ensuring minimum environmental impact. HIVOL will investigate and develop low cost manufacturing technologies that will enable high volume wing manufacture for next generation aircraft.

NGCW will ensure that mature technologies are available to enable the design, development, validation, manufacture, equipping and testing of lightweight aerodynamically efficient and economic to produce wings which are optimised with the overall aircraft ensuring minimum environmental impact. INTEQ will develop simplified, reliable, wing system installation concepts and compact control surface actuation methods that would support high volume low cost manufacture.