Memex Automation OEE Solution Discussed in Aerospace Engineering and Manufacturing

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: View of south hangar, including B-29 Superfortress “Enola Gay”, a glimpse of the Air France Concorde, and many others


Image by Chris Devers

Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Boeing B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay":

Boeing’s B-29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of World War II and the first bomber to house its crew in pressurized compartments. Although designed to fight in the European theater, the B-29 found its niche on the other side of the globe. In the Pacific, B-29s delivered a variety of aerial weapons: conventional bombs, incendiary bombs, mines, and two nuclear weapons.

On August 6, 1945, this Martin-built B-29-45-MO dropped the first atomic weapon used in combat on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, Bockscar (on display at the U.S. Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio) dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Enola Gay flew as the advance weather reconnaissance aircraft that day. A third B-29, The Great Artiste, flew as an observation aircraft on both missions.

Transferred from the United States Air Force.

Manufacturer:
Boeing Aircraft Co.
Martin Co., Omaha, Nebr.

Date:

1945

Country of Origin:

United States of America

Dimensions:

Overall: 900 x 3020cm, 32580kg, 4300cm (29ft 6 5/16in. x 99ft 1in., 71825.9lb., 141ft 15/16in.)

Materials:

Polished overall aluminum finish

Physical Description:

Four-engine heavy bomber with semi-monoqoque fuselage and high-aspect ratio wings. Polished aluminum finish overall, standard late-World War II Army Air Forces insignia on wings and aft fuselage and serial number on vertical fin; 509th Composite Group markings painted in black; "Enola Gay" in black, block letters on lower left nose.

According to a recent issue of Aerospace Engineering and Manufacturing, “Tough-minded offshore competitors, currency swings, trade disputes, and customer balance sheet fluctuations created by anything from the financial crisis to Icelandic volcanic activity are just a few of the external factors that can determine success or failure for the North American manufacturing industry.”

 

The Memex Automation Mx2000 Machine Interface handheld device is connected to the machine control panel and to the Ax9150 UMI for OEE Machine Monitoring (physically located inside the panel). This Memex Automation structure allows signals to be picked up automatically from the machine, eliminating operator input as much as possible, but if the operator needs to enter information, the operator has that ability as well.

 

 

Inside the factory walls, all that matters is productivity.

 

“The cost of raw materials is essentially the same for all machined part manufacturers, and the cost of capital equipment is about the same,” said Sébastien Caron, Plant Manager for Héroux-Devtek Inc. “Even quality is becoming much the same. So our biggest differentiator is productivity.”

 

Héroux-Devtek manufactures aircraft landing gear, aerostructures, and industrial components in 10 locations across North America. Like most manufacturing headquarters, the Longueuil, Québec, head office is a paragon of computerized productivity. Centralized, Internet-driven networks control flows of information via enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, accounting systems, and communications systems that help run the company.

 

Until teaming up with Burlington, Ontario-based Memex Automation, it was a different story on the factory floor. Individual machine tools were highly automated, but as in many manufacturing operations they remained islands of unconnected information—like having a group of office PCs, each with a different software application, unconnected by a Local Area Network, and unable to communicate with each other.

 

The company decided to change that. In 2007, it initiated a companywide mandate to look at overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) devices that automatically track machine utilization. With a mechanical engineering and project management background, as well as experience working in several of Héroux-Devtek’s manufacturing sites, Caron was put in charge of the project.

 

“I knew that there were other Héroux-Devtek sites looking at OEE devices to track machine utilization,” he said. “Many of our plants were working towards individual implementations. Some sites were ahead, other sites had not started at all. We realized that it would be beneficial to have a common OEE platform for all sites. After talking to all our plant managers, we decided on a common approach. Dedicated individuals from each site worked in collaboration to successfully implement the Memex product, taking into account their specific operational environments.

 

About Memex Automation Inc.

 

Memex Automation Inc., http://www.memex.ca, a unit of Astrix Networks Inc., was created to leverage the research and development of Memex Electronics, which was founded in 1992. Memex continues its tradition of serving the discrete manufacturing sector, supplying component hardware, memory upgrades, and visionary shop floor communication technology. Memex Automation products are “Automating the Automation” allowing a manufacturer to increase productivity and decrease costs. Memex Automation focuses on delivering value with Real-Time Machine Monitoring and Control, which utilizes OEE+DNC solutions that boost efficiency by up to fifty percent with minimal capital investment. Memex Automation is based in Burlington, Ontario.

 

 

 

Memex, Inc.

www.memex.ca

John Rattray

jrattray@astrixnet.com

1-866-573-3895

 

Professional Marketing Firm for the Manufacturing Community.  Manufacturing Journalist or Contributing Journalist for many manufacturing magazines and journals.  Founder of the Media Consortium and media blitz.

Memex Automation OEE Solution Discussed in Aerospace Engineering and Manufacturing

System for rapid manufacturing of replacement aerospace parts

Method for the rapid manufacturing of aerospace replacement parts 100 is provided, including removing an in-service aerospace part from an aerospace system 120. The present invention further includes placing the in-service aerospace part into a three-dimensional scanning device 130.

The invention then scans the in-service aerospace part utilizing the three-dimensional scanning device to develop a three-dimensional scan 140. A computer-aided-design model is then developed based on the three-dimensional scan 150. The invention then direct metal fabricates a replacement aerospace part from the computer-aided-design model utilizing layer-build technology device 170. Finally the replacement aerospace part is installed back into the aerospace system 180.

Aerospace and military applications often provide unique challenges to design and manufacturing. The nature of these applications often requires limited run and small-lot productions that result in high cost because of the small quantity of individualized assemblies. Part cost can be extremely expensive due to the cost of tooling and long lead-time associated with developing and fabricating the tooling. If these costs are associated with initial build, they are even more prevalent in dealing with replacement parts for aging aircraft and military applications.

Replacement parts for aging aircraft and other systems commonly arise where the tooling that produced the original parts is no longer in existence. Additionally, the parts “as designed” may not in fact interface correctly into the existing systems. When this situation arises, a complete redesign of part layout and tooling may be required at considerable expense. In addition, where original tooling is no longer available, redevelopment and fabrication of tooling is often required. This can result in undesirable costs associate with supply of the replacement parts. Also, on occasion, it may be necessary to build more parts than are actually needed to help amortize the costs of the tooling. This, however, can result in large inventory costs that counter the cost savings associated with the larger production runs.

What is needed is a cost effective and productive method of supplying replacement parts in limited runs without the negative costs associated with the redevelopment of specialized tooling. Additionally, it would be highly desirable to have a method of supplying replacement parts that addressed the problems associated with in-service parts no longer matching original design specifications. If such a system were developed it would eliminate the costs associated with specialized tooling, long lead time development, and large inventory.

It is therefore an object to the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for the rapid manufacturing of aerospace replacement parts that provides relief from the costs and long lead-time associated with the development and fabrication of tooling. It is further object to the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for the rapid manufacturing of aerospace replacement parts that would address small lot productions and components that no longer match original design configurations.

In accordance with the objects of the present invention a method for the rapid manufacturing of aerospace replacement parts is provided. The method includes removing an in-service aerospace part from an aerospace system. The in-service aerospace part is placed into a three-dimensional scanning device. The present invention further includes scanning the in-service aerospace part. The present invention then develops a computer-aided-design model based on the three-dimensional scan. The present invention finally includes direct metal fabricating a replacement part from the computer-aided-design model utilizing a layer-build technology device.

Longxiang Industrial Limited is providing professional precise rapid manufacturing, prototype rapid, 3d prototype, plastic prototype, 3d prototyping, 3d rapid prototyping, plastic prototyping, rapid prototype and rapid tooling in China. We look forward to participating at the success of your next project.

Find More Aerospace E Defense Articles

System for rapid manufacturing of replacement aerospace parts

Ningbo Manufacturing Aerospace Vehicles Require Compliance Seal - Seals, General Hardware - Hardware

CS-DKE Gulfstream Aerospace GV-SP (G550) msn/5094 @ LFMN/NCE 26-05-2014


Image by Nabil Molinari plane spotter

Seals in the aerospace vehicle plays a very key role, the United States, “Columbia” space shuttle crash is the problem caused by seals. Far Industrial Equipment Co., Ltd. Ningbo letter can take the national space research projects the Department, Yuan Yi Lin, general manager of the company in the field of graphite status.

04 16, Jiangbei District, a business welcomed six countries, experts from the Department of Space, the purpose of their visit is to develop these companies for final identification of the Seals. After a series of tests, the six aerospace experts agree that the performance of this material has reached aerospace vehicles as a standard seal. This means that our future aerospace vehicles required for manufacturing sealing materials can be imported from the United States is no longer required.

Graphite, the most common is the pencil lead. It consists of carbon, and a great expansion, can expand to 280 to 330 times. “Expanded graphite through the various formulations and molecular composition can play a more features, such as strong resistance to corrosion, very good hot stability and creep resistance, it can soak in sulfuric acid, nitric acid, the can withstand 300 degree heat and low temperature 200 degrees below zero is a natural sealing materials. “Yuan Yi Lin said.

Several years ago, graduated from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in the Yuan Yi Lin will be in place of graphite cutting-edge research in the field, his production of expanded graphite sealing materials and related products, not only China’s exports account for 70 of the total exports %, and the product quality has reached the leading domestic.

2008 10 months, the Chinese Academy of Sciences Shaanxi coal rank the go-between, the state Department of Space to find Yuan Yi Lin, Yuan Yi Lin can hope to conduct further research on the graphite, and finally developed for the sealing material in the spacecraft.

To Yuan Yi Lin was technology, and space experts know, from the developed application to aerospace vehicle is a big difference between seals. However, contrary to experts expected that after six months Yuan Yi Lin will get new seals developed the National Space Department. May 2009, the new product by the Department of State Space Identification. After the first technology, the national Department of Space also proposed to design a more stringent sealing requirements, yesterday, after rigorous testing at every level, Yuan Yi Lin once again come up with new products successfully identified.

Yuan Yi Lin told the author that, in addition to aerospace applications, this expanded graphite was also applied to the nuclear power plant, recently, he received the first orders for nuclear power plants. The original, with further research, Yuan Yi Lin’s research team also found that the graphite has good radiation resistance.

In fact, the graphite of the “beauty” is being opened little by little, Yuan Yi Lin, now, this substance are also beginning to enter the lives of ordinary people. Yuan Yi Lin said, graphite also has excellent thermal conductivity, it can quickly transfer the heat out, people are using 3G mobile phones, plasma TV China needs to have this kind of material. At present, the famous manufacturer of display products BOE also found Yuan Yi Lin, the two sides will work together Cooperation Development of large-screen TV.

I am an expert from caustic-soda-flakes.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Sodium Metabisulfite , China Painting and Dyeing chemicals,

Ningbo Manufacturing Aerospace Vehicles Require Compliance Seal - Seals, General Hardware - Hardware

Aerospace Manufacturing ? Trends in Aerospace Manufacturing

2011 서울에어쇼/2011 Seoul Air Show


Image by mR.Son.Photo

서울 국제 항공우주 및 방위산업전시회 2011

Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition 2011

 

Aerospace manufacturing services have undergone significant modifications. These alterations are a result of the ever-changing demands of clients and customers, based on the aerospace products, equipments and machinery parts that has proved beneficial as well as the ones that did not serve the purpose.

The latest trends in aerospace manufacturing highlight that die-casting aluminum products have proven beneficial to the aerospace industry, where high quality and precision products are always on demand for greater customer satisfaction. These products and product parts help in establishing major as well as minor aviation components. Furthermore, aluminum casting machinery parts are used for pivotal military as well as commercial sector. The reason is that it is cost-effective and provides greater results

Aerospace components made out of die casting aluminum apart from cost-effective are competent enough to withstand adverse weather conditions and heightened damages. Another essential reason for resorting to aluminum aero products is that the metal is reasonably priced than other die-casted metals available. In addition to that, aluminum has the ability to amalgamate well with other metals thereby providing flexibility and durability. Therefore, when you opt for an aluminum aero product or machine component you do not have to compromise on the quality ever.

In the recent past, there has been an increase in the aerospace engineering services companies. They concentrate on providing a high-quality base for the global aerospace industry by manufacturing stable aerospace precision machine part both for the military and commercial spheres. The companies are well equipped with state-of-the-art machinery for generating efficient aero structure components that pass every criteria of quality standard and are durable and long lasting.

Aerospace product and part manufacturing undergo stringent layers of mechanization and inspection to make the products robust as per the best industrial standards. The various domains in which the aerospace engineering consultancy services excel are listed below-

Assembly process planning,

Value engineering and value analysis,

Assembly tooling design & development and

CNC program coding

Eminent aerospace manufacturing services companies today have joined hands with other organizations of global eminence to increase their capacities in special processing areas along with sheet metal manufacturing.

 

Writing article is my hobby..

More Aerospace E Defense Articles

Aerospace Manufacturing ? Trends in Aerospace Manufacturing
http://www.datacorptechnology.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/6294124089_90d7f4917d.jpg