Suppliers out in force

Over 150 suppliers will be out in force with many announcing new products and cutting edge solutions. The event's show floor will be hive of activity and nowhere more so than on Atlas Composites' stand where it will be showcasing an array of new components and manufacturing capabilities.

The stand will feature new developments in aerospace capabilities, structural composite components, electronic enclosures, ballistic and missile manufacturing capabilities.

Meanwhile, The Attwater Group, the manufacturers of industrial laminates and insulation materials, will unveil its range of fabric (SRBF), paper (SRBP), glass (SRBG) including polyimide as well as a range of carbon fibre laminates. The company will also be showcasing its enhanced manufacturing capabilities, following further investment in CNC milling and turning centres this year.

Still on the theme of composites, CGTech will be showcasing its Vericut Composites Applications Software on its stand. Visitors will see an overview of the steps needed to get from a CAD designed composite part to CNC programs that drive an automated fibre placement (AFP) machine.

Current customer projects to be highlighted include: a large one-piece fuselage barrel on an Electroimpact multi-machine AFP fabrication cell; an aircraft inlet duct on a Cincinnati Viper 1200 AFP machine; the challenges encountered supporting a flexible AFP gantry machine; lay-up of a U-channel structure on a 7-axis MTorres AFP machine; and aircraft skin panels and experiments using an AFP head mounted on a 6-axis robot.

Throughout the show, CGTech will be demonstrating Vericut Composite Applications: Vericut Composite Programming (VCP) & Vericut Composite Simulation (VCS). The company will also be exhibiting the latest version of its Vericut CNC machine simulation software.

Elsewhere, CMS will be discussing its complete range of 5-axis CNC machine centres. Particular emphasis will be place on the Antares and Ares range, which are typically used for high-speed pattern machining in model block with others being utilised for trimming, drilling and machining composite components, including carbon fibre and honeycomb.

Utilising the PX5 universal spindle assembly offering 5-axis movement, all axes move simultaneously and are controlled by the Fanuc 31i control system complete with CMS adaptive control, which allows a complex surface to be produced with a significantly reduced cycle time without compromising the surface quality or accuracy.

Also of interest, Delcam will highlight some of the many successful aerospace applications of its PowerMILL CAM software for 5-axis machining.

The company claims that many manufacturers have benefited from PowerMILL's calculation speed, wide range of 5-axis machining strategies and powerful toolpath optimisation tools, including Tritech, Messier-Bugatti and Creuzet Aeronautique.

Among the many advantages that PowerMILL brings to the company, users most appreciate the control over the different high speed machining strategies, the smoothness of the toolpaths and the significant reduction in the vibration of the parts during machining. As well as helping to maintain accuracy, this extends the lifetime of both the tooling and the machines.

Innovative and flexible solutions will be the name of the game with Epicor Software Corporation as it will unveil its next generation enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, Epicor 9 during the show.

The company will also be presenting an Open Technology Session where company sales director, Mark Hughes will reveal how ERP technology can support enhanced quality management and waste reduction within aerospace industries, through centralised information.

Also sizing up the event will be Faro as it showcases its measurement solutions. Visitors can expect to see live demonstrations of the company's 3D measurement devices including Laser Tracker ION, the FaroArm and ScanArm as well as the Faro Gage.

“Visitors can try out how quickly and easily measurements can be carried out using our products,” states Faro's area vice-president of sales for the UK, France and Benelux, David Homewood. “Many of our customers used fixed CMMs before switching to our portable solutions. By using our systems, they can reduce their leadtimes while improving quality standards. This guarantees a very fast ROI.”

Heller meanwhile will be using its theme ‘Heller Taking Cost out of Quality' during the show. With more than 100 years of delivering to manufacturing industries, Heller's cost-down experience is now helping aerospace manufacturers achieve major cost savings. The company is meeting the aerospace cost-down challenge with a comprehensive line-up of aerospace related machine tools that is said to deliver production savings of up to 30%.

Moving on, Indestructible Paint says its stand will highlight an in-depth involvement in the development and production of surface coatings for the aerospace industry worldwide.

The company's coatings include a range of often specialised and diverse types of materials for component manufacturers and maintenance organisations. These include extreme heat and corrosion resistant inorganic coatings used on jet engine turbine blades - one of only two materials of this type available in the world.

More conventional organic materials include special coatings formulated for magnesium, very high corrosion resistant epoxy products for a variety of substrates, polyurethane finishes and dry film lubricants, whilst the increasing use of composites in aerospace applications has lead to the development of new materials designed specifically for these substrates.

Jetcam will be launching its CrossTrack order, material, ply and kit management software suite at the Composites Engineering Show.

The company will be sharing a booth with Vistagy to demonstrate the integration between Vistagy's FiberSIM software and Jetcam Expert CADCAM and nesting software.

Jetcam will also provide demonstrations of both Jetcam Expert and CrossTrack and will be offering free nest comparisons, where users can gauge the efficiency of their existing nests against Jetcam's nesting module.

There's a warm welcome waiting on the Nabertherm stand, where the company will be demonstrating how its industrial furnaces cover different processes in the aerospace industry. With respect to the processing of advanced materials, the company offers a range of standard as well as customised furnaces and systems for temperatures between 30-3,000 °C.

During the event, Rediweld Technical Moulding claims it will be offering its complete service of technical moulding for the mil-aero sector which is based on a combination of processes including thermoplastic injection and low pressure moulding, thermoset compression and transfer moulding as well as rubber injection/compression moulding.

Rediweld is also involved in the design process and helps project manage tooling. The company says it also adds value to components with secondary operations, such as machining and assembly and finally delivering parts in the right form at the right time.

Stinson Aerospace will use the event to introduce the latest technology in temporary, non-metallic fasteners, designed specifically for the temporary assembly of composite structures.

The company's design team developed the temporary composite fastener (TCF) to meet the demands of its aerospace assembly customers. The TCF is validated by BAE Systems and is adopted in its system for use in the assembly of its composite components and has been nominated for its Chairman's Award for Innovation. The TCF will feature prominently on the stand, with demonstrations on installation and removal of the fasteners.

Using images, samples and electronic presentations from its stand, Vacuum Furnace Engineering will be displaying its range of services, including the supply of new equipment, redesign and refurbishment of existing systems, planned maintenance visits by its team of engineers and spare parts support within the field of thermal processing and metal joining.

VFE claims its experience in problem solving and novel engineered solutions covers all makes of equipment and all aspects of vacuum technology including vacuum heat treatment, vacuum brazing, vacuum melting & casting, diffusion bonding, vacuum sintering, electron beam welding and many other processes.

As a first-time exhibitor at Aero Engineering, XYZ Machine Tools will be demonstrating three machines from its range of ProtoTRAK-equipped CNC/manual milling machines and lathes and Siemens CNC-equipped machining centres and turning machines.

This includes a 5hp variable speed head ProtoTRAK SMX 3500 bed mill; a 10hp ProTURN SLX 425 gap bed lathe; and a 20hp 710 VMC vertical machining centre. The two ProtoTRAK-equipped machine tools feature the latest generation CNC/manual control, while the 710 VMC is available with the new Siemens Sinumerik 828D conversational control.

Finally, Zuken will showcase a portfolio of CAD software that provides an end-to-end engineering solution for the aerospace industry. From PCB and system design with CR-5000 to electrical and fluid engineering (including harness and cable design), the company's E³.series is said to bring all the design and engineering elements together. Zuken will also focus on system-level design including electrical and electronic design, managing the change process, test and manufacturability, and documentation for the complete lifecycle.

www.aeroconf.com

www.compositesexhibition.com