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，以实现具有成本竞争力的先进翼型设计的制造，这些设计以高速旋转并有效地压缩进入的空气。这些措施包括：新的锻造方法；优化的机械加工；超塑性成形工艺的改进。该项目的目标是实现生产率提高30%，第一次100%正确，并显著缩短工艺周期时间。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)的合作项目。该项目结合了多种新的工具和加工技术，以及新的工艺，大大改进了高温航空航天材料的锻造，显著提高了模具寿命和成品零件的精度。这些改进和新成形工具的开发减少了制造前轴承壳和后外铸件的作业量。在超塑性成形方面也有了显著的改进，显著提高了对工艺的了解，降低了工具和验证成本，并缩短了新产品的推出时间。因此，劳斯莱斯在英国保护了15个工作岗位，并购买了超过400万GB的资本设备，用于Inchinnan工厂的机翼加工/锻造和Barnoldswick工厂的超塑性成形。该项目中开发的许多技术将部署在巴诺德斯威克的新设施中，劳斯莱斯正在那里投资超过2800万GB，用于扩建宽弦风扇叶片设施。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。劳斯莱斯将在Barnoldswick生产的所有未来SPF叶片上采用新的超级塑料成形技术，并有机会将该技术应用于传统部件。开发的技术的第一批开发将用于Trent 1000和XWB发动机。“劳斯莱斯与研究中心合作，克服了重大技术挑战，开发了提供更严格规格翼型的技术，帮助显著改进我们Inchinnan和Barnoldswick工厂未来的翼型制造。”劳斯莱斯制造技术总监史蒂夫·伯吉斯

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