NATEP Distortion and Residual Stress Control for Manufacture Project

Earlier this year we announced that Craftsman Tools Ltd had been awarded grant funding from NATEP (National Aerospace Technology Exploitation Programme) that funds new technologies in the UK aerospace supply chain.

Craftsman Tools secured involvement in a project titled “Distortion and Residual Stress Control for Manufacture”

Craftsman Tools decided to undertake a technology development project because for over 60 years we have prided ourselves on ‘Collaborating with the World’s Finest’, designing, engineering and manufacturing tools for a wide range of companies across various industries worldwide.

We have continuously benefited from our own innovations and utilised technology that has allowed us to be a leader in our field, so having the opportunity to work on an innovative project with such accomplished companies supplying into Rolls Royce has been an extremely rewarding experience which will lead to exciting future product developments.

NATEP Partner slide

The Project Partners:-

         Silcoms (Lead partner)

         AMRC with Boeing

         Sandvik Coromant

         Craftsman Tools

         End User: Rolls-Royce

Project Objectives:

Apply a scientific approach to understand distortion and residual stress in thin wall large diameter rings and to transfer that knowledge into Silcoms to enable consistent machining processes.

Currently distortion is controlled by multiple machining operations and operator intervention leading to long lead times and machine capacity pressure.

Residual stress analysis had been applied to “rigid” shafts and discs by the AMRC but not to thin walled rings. The challenge will be to apply the analysis outcome to the manufacturing process.

Project Outcomes:

Utilising the latest residual stress analysis (AMRC), advanced cutting tool technology (Sandvik Coromant) and innovative fixture design (Craftsman Tools) the project team has been able to completely re-design the method manufacture reducing the number of machining operations from 7 to 3.

Furthermore Craftsman tools have strengthened links with the project partners and improved our understanding of complex aero-engine rings.

The project was presented at a NATEP dissemination event at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) in Coventry earlier in the year and has been to be presented again on January 18^th at Rolls Royce in Derby. The project formally concludes in June 2017.