Project 1: Tighter Specification Aerofoils

更严格规格的翼型项目旨在开发新的制造工艺，使制造具有成本竞争力的先进翼型设计能够高速旋转并有效压缩进入的空气。这些包括：新的锻造方法；优化加工;超塑性成形工艺的改进。该项目的目标是提高30%的生产率，100%的第一次正确率，并显著减少工艺周期时间。该项目是劳斯莱斯、谢菲尔德大学先进制造研究中心（AMRC）和先进锻造与成形研究中心（AFRC）之间的合作项目。该项目采用了多种新的工具和加工技术，以及新的工艺，在锻造高温航空航天材料方面取得了很大的进步，大大提高了模具寿命和成品零件的精度。这些改进和新成型工具的发展减少了制造前轴承外壳和后外铸件的操作量。在超级塑性成形方面也有显著的改进，显著提高了对工艺的理解，降低了工具和验证成本，缩短了新产品引入的提前期。因此，劳斯莱斯在英国保住了15个工作岗位，并购买了超过400万英镑的资本设备，用于Inchinnan工厂的翼型加工/锻造和barnolswick工厂的超塑性成型。在该项目中开发的许多技术将部署在巴诺斯威克的新工厂，罗尔斯·罗伊斯正在投资超过2800万英镑用于宽弦风扇叶片设施扩建。这将为中小企业和当地供应商提供工装、夹具、模具和材料提供重要的工作。Rolls-Royce将在Barnoldswick工厂生产的所有SPF叶片上采用新的超级塑性成形技术，并有机会将该技术应用于传统部件。该技术将首先应用于遄达1000和XWB发动机。“罗尔斯·罗伊斯与研究中心合作，克服了重大的技术挑战，开发了提供更严格规格的机翼的技术，有助于显著改善我们在Inchinnan和barnolswick工厂的未来机翼制造。”史蒂夫·伯吉斯，劳斯莱斯制造技术总监

The Tighter Specification Aerofoils Project aimed to develop new manufacturing processes that enable cost competitive manufacture of advanced aerofoil designs which rotate at high speeds and efficiently compress the incoming air. These included: new forging methods; optimised machining; improvements to the Superplastic Forming process. The project aimed to achieve 30% improvement in productivity, 100% Right First Time, and significantly reduced process cycle times. This project was a collaboration between Rolls-Royce, the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) and Advanced Forging and Forming Research Centre (AFRC). The project incorporated multiple new tooling and machining technologies, and novel processes to produce great improvements in forging high temperature aerospace materials, to significantly increase die life and accuracy of finished components. These improvements and the development of new form tools have reduced the amount of operations to manufacture the front bearing housing and rear outer casting. There were also significant improvements in the Super Plastic Forming, significantly increasing process understanding, reducing tooling and validation costs and new product introduction lead time.As a result, Rolls-Royce has safeguarded 15 UK jobs and purchased over £4m of capital equipment for aerofoil machining / forging in the Inchinnan facility and super plastic forming in the Barnoldswick facility. Many of the technologies developed in this project will be deployed in the new facility in Barnoldswick where Rolls-Royce is investing over £28m for a wide chord fan blade facility extension. This will provide a significant work to SMEs and local suppliers to provide tooling, fixtures, dies and materials. Rolls-Royce will incorporate the new Super Plastic Forming technologies onto all future SPF blades produced at Barnoldswick, with an opportunity to apply this technology onto legacy components. The first exploitation of the technologies developed will be in the Trent 1000 and XWB engines.“Rolls-Royce, working in conjunction with the Research Centres has overcome significant technical challenges to develop technologies that offer tighter specification aerofoils, helping to significantly improve future aerofoil manufacture at our Inchinnan and Barnoldswick facilities.” Steve Burgess, Director, Manufacturing Technology, Rolls-Royce