Aerospace revolutionmay lift economy in region

Eight academic and industrial partners from four countries have collaborated on the Yorkshire-based Rapolac (Rapid Production of Large Aerospace Components) project.

The three-year project has developed the shaped metal deposition (SMD) process, which produces components by welding a continuous metal wire. This reduces the waste involved in machining parts from a larger block, and removes the need for the expensive tooling used in forging.

Using SMD, the time required to design and produce a large aerospace component such as an engine casing can be reduced from nine months to a few weeks.

Rolls Royce licensed the technology to the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre with Boeing (AMRC), which is the lead research partner in Rapolac.

Rosemary Gault, Rapolac project manager, said: "SMD was a very promising technology when it came to us, but companies weren't interested because it was very labour-intensive and we didn't understand the material properties.

"Thanks to the funding from the EU Framework Programme and the hard work of all our partners, it's now been fully modelled and automated. It's ready to go into wider production, and we're talking to a number of companies from aerospace and other sectors."

She added: "Because the SMD results came out of a European funded project, they're not aimed solely at Yorkshire companies, but there are many local metals engineering businesses that are ideally placed to adopt this technology and offer higher added-value services to global companies in aerospace and other sectors, such as automotive, medical technology and nuclear manufacturing.

"Local companies do have the advantage that the test cell is right on their doorstep if they want to learn more about the process.

"We've had a fair bit of interest from larger aerospace, medical and automotive companies. We've built test parts for several companies and are in talks to build more complex pieces in the next few months.

"If these are also successful, I would expect local companies to be able to start offering SMD parts, or parts with SMD features, as early as next year."

The movements of the robot welding arm within the SMD cell were automated at an early stage in the project.

Developing an automated control system, so that the cell could run itself without the need for continual supervision, was a vital part of the project's work.

Researchers at the Universit degli Studi di Catania, in Sicily, developed a fully automated control system which was integrated with process models developed by Samtech, an engineering software company based in Lige, Belgium.

Researchers at Intec, part of the Universidad Nacional del Litoral in Santa Fe, Argentina, studied the behaviour of the metal weld during the SMD process, while a team at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, analysed the microstructure and mechanical properties of the components produced by SMD.

Tim Chapman, the communications manager, at the University of Sheffield AMRC said: "Rapolac consortium members are now seeing keen interest in the SMD technology from industry."

Sheffield-based Footprint Sheffield, which produces hand tools, aims to use the technology in its factory to help it reach new markets.

Richard Jewitt, a director of Footprint Sheffield, said: "To survive and prosper we must move up the technology ladder."

EC BACKING AIDS COMPETITION

The RAPOLAC project is supported by the European Commission Framework Programme, which supports research and development work to make the EU more competitive.

Communications manager Tim Chapman at the Advanc-ed Manufacturing Research Centre in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, said: "The focus is on improving the compet-itiveness of European industry and addressing common problems in areas like transport and the environment. Projects need to include academic and industrial partners from a number of countries.

"There's a new round every four or five years, reflecting changing priorities – the sixth framework programme ran from 2002-2006, and

we're now involved with several projects under the seventh."