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Article: A material world: composite materials are fast becoming the future preferred choice for aerospace design engineers. But for the production engineer, there is still much to learn about these new materials.(aerospace)(Cover Story)
- Article from:
- Metalworking Production
- Article date:
- December 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Centaur Communications Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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AIRBUS UK at Filton near Bristol is the lead partner in the 1 million [pounds sterling] DTI sponsored, DARWin project--Drilling Automation Research for Wing manufacture. One of its two main objectives is to develop a technique for machining high quality holes in composite material; in this instance, carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP). It is part of the company's learning process in getting ready to assemble the metallic/composite hybrid wings for the A400M military transporter aircraft.
DARWin is using a wingbox demonstrator that has been built as part of the four-year TANGO (Technology Application for Near-term business Goals and Objectives) programme. The ...