Landing gear cleared for take-off

Fully accredited for the overhaul and repair of landing gears, flap tracks and flap carriage systems, and hydraulic systems on all Boeing aircraft, Hawker Pacific Aerospace has recently upgraded its grinding capability.

  To ensure it was fully equipped for the latest generation of long range, wide body aircraft entering the market, the landing gear maintenance specialist's latest acquisition is a Danobat HG 92 heavy duty CNC cylindrical grinding machine. Installed at its Hayes, West London premises last August, the machine accommodates grinding wheels up to 1,015mm diameter, and is capable of grinding an 850mm maximum diameter on workpieces weighing up to 5000kg held within a maximum between centres (chuck to motorised tailstock) of 6m. “Although we are part of the Lufthansa Group, it operates as a separate entity here in the UK,” says Les Flitcroft, Hawker Pacific's process manager,” which means we are responsible for every aspect of the business, from securing orders to ensuring a customer's aircraft is back in service as soon as possible. As part of this remit we have to be able to deal with every eventuality, including aircraft on ground (AOG) situations typically involving axle changes, brake sleeve changes and shock strut seal changes. “Our tendering procedure [for the new machine] was based on the size of component that we expect to be grinding for the type and size of new generation aircraft like the 787. We eventually opted for Danobat, in part because of our past experience with Newall, but also because the HG 92 makes use of in-house designed and manufactured modular units rather than sourcing from other OEMs. Danobat's IDEKO Technological Research and Development Centre is highly regarded worldwide and its vision of the future is in step with our thinking. It has demonstrated its industry leadership by developing a high precision machine with the swing and between centres distance that we require, together with the option of both internal and external grinding.” Although the internal grinding capability is not needed at this point in time, the option is there, courtesy of the HG 92's B axis (continuous with a minimum programmable increment of 0.0001°), and only requires an additional spindle and motor to be fitted. However, the HG 92 is equipped as standard with the DanMDM multi-diameter absolute gauging system for in-process gauging, and is also equipped with probing for length, face and taper measurements. Measurements can be carried out before and after grinding, with the Windows-based DanOp front-end programming system making any necessary corrections as a function of measured values. The user-friendly DanOp software minimises set-up as it enables the user to complete the machine settings, the wheel-dressing management and the grinding programming quickly and easily. The Siemens 840D conversational control is used to call up standard programs and to enter all relevant component data without any requirement for the operator to have experience of ISO programming. “Although we employ highly-skilled grinders we wanted everything with DanOp to be as simple as possible to minimise the possibility of error,” adds Flitcroft. “Because we are an overhaul and repair facility we don't know what we may be faced with on a day to day basis. Landing gear can come in here at any time from any airline around the world and can be different every single time, although the overhaul process is basically the same. We remove all bushes and bearings, subject each casting or forging to a complete visual inspection, and then carry out bakes, machining, NDT, plating and painting. Every aspect has to be inspected before re-assembly before final certification in accordance with Boeing's Component Maintenance Manual.” www.hawker.com
www.newall-uk.com

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