GKN Aerospace Programme Data
GKN Aerospace on the Airbus A350 XWB
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GKN Aerospace involvement on the Airbus A350 XWB includes:
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Designed, developed and is manufacturing the aircraft’s composite rear wing spars
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Established a state of the art automated facility that assembles the wing fixed trailing
edge (FTE) parts to the rear spar. GKN Aerospace then delivers the complete FTE to
the Airbus facility at Broughton, North Wales, UK.
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Manufactures the composite components for the aircraft wing’s inboard and outboard
flaps
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Manufactures Rolls-Royce Trent XWB structures including thrust struts, inner core
fairings and blisks.
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Designed, developed and is manufacturing the Rolls-Royce intermediate compressor
case (intercase)
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Supplies the passenger cabin windows (PCW) which use the company’s patented,
industry-leading CrystalVue II™ coating technology. 114 PCW are supplied per ship
set.
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Through Fokker Technologies (a division of GKN Aerospace), supplies the composite
outboard flaps for the wings.
Innovative techniques and technologies have been introduced across every aspect of GKN
Aerospace’s development and production work for the A350XWB. These technologies are
helping ensure the aircraft meets demanding requirements for manufacturing as well as
exacting specifications covering aircraft weight, fuel consumption and emissions.
Investment
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GKN Aerospace has invested over £170m to create a state of the art facility in the UK that will
be the base for the manufacture of the aircraft’s rear wing spar and assembly of the fixed
trailing edge
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The company has also invested in its Munich, Germany facility where the inboard and
outboard flaps (including skins, spars, ribs and leading edges) are manufactured using the
advanced tape laying and forming processes.
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In Sweden, the company has invested more than £20m in its fabrication cell to support state
of the art manufacturing of the engine intercase.
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In Papendrecht, The Netherlands, more than £15m has been invested by Fokker Technologies
in the production hall for the manufacture of the wing outboard flaps.
Engine structures for the Trent XWB engine
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The engine thrust struts are manufactured in high temperature nickel alloy with chemical
milling used to create a lighter, stronger structure.
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The blisks will also be manufactured using chemical machining to produce a component to
very fine tolerances and an excellent surface finish.
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The inner core fairings incorporate proprietary all-welded titanium honeycomb technology
which gives excellent sound suppression along with a lighter, more durable and more easily
repaired structure. GKN Aerospace’s ability to produce critical exotic metal structures is
evidence of company’s expertise across the highly skilled fabrication and forming processes
that transform advanced, ultra-hard metals and into complex finished shapes and structures.
Intercase for the Trent XWB engine
The Trent XWB engine ICC is an advanced structural engine casing that uses the latest
lightweight fabrication technologies in its manufacture.
The intercase uses:
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A combination of titanium castings, forgings and sheet metal components. The material
choice and form has been selected to optimise manufacturing processes and to achieve
demanding strength, fatigue and thermal requirements.
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Advanced laser, TIG and plasma welding techniques.
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A combination of the latest laser metal deposition (LMD) techniques.
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In addition, each weld has completed extensive validation testing which has optimised
welding parameters, reduced defect rate, and ensured weld geometries to minimise air flow
disruptions in engine gas paths and maximise engine performance.
The rear spar and fixed trailing edge
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Using the latest carbon reinforced fibre composite (CRFC) materials, GKN Aerospace has
introduced innovations across product design, and manufacture including material deposition,
tooling and forming, finishing, assembly and testing.
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Transportation of the 27 metre long FTE from GKN Aerospace at Western Approach in Bristol,
UK to Airbus at Broughton is achieved in three sections with the largest section being over 10
meters long.
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In production of the wing spar:
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An automated fibre placement (AFP) process uses a robotic head to lay down 16 tows
of material at a rate of around 7-10 kg of material an hour.
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The spars cannot be made using traditional hand lay-up processes for two reasons:
Speed and quality consistency. Hand lay-up is achieved at approximately 1 kg of
material per hour - just 1/8th the AFP speed. Hand lay-up also cannot achieve the
production consistency and fine tolerances required for the structure.
In assembly of the FTE:
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GKN Aerospace has created an innovative fully automated ‘moving line’ assembly
process where automated guided vehicles move A350 XWB wing structures through
dedicated work stations that carry out complex tasks including five axis machining,
robotic drilling and laser scanning.
The outboard flaps
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Outboard flaps increase the surface-area of the wing during take-off and landing. These
Fokker Technologies composite flaps have unique capabilities, enabling differential flap
settings to be applied for the first time. This will allow the centre of lift to be moved
depending on the airframe loading. During serial production, Fokker will produce 140 flap
sets per annum.
GKN Aerospace and Airbus
GKN Aerospace has been supplying composite products for wings to Airbus since the development
of the A320 family of aircraft. The company supplies items such as:
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The full set of composite flap components for the A330/A340.
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The large wing trailing edge for the A380 - the first-ever application of a process called resin
film infusion (RFI).
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The GLARE® upper fuselage panels for the A380 - from Fokker Technologies. Every A380 has
a total of 500 square meters of Glare on board providing a 15 - 30% weight reduction,
enhanced corrosion resistance and outstanding fatigue and impact resistance. Glare is so
effective that this part of the A380 fuselage requires no inspection until 20,000 flight hours.
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The pioneering all-composite wing spar and wing trailing edge for the A400M – another first
for GKN Aerospace. This was the first all-composite primary structure for the wing of a large
aircraft.
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Composite horizontal and vertical tail plane details. GKN Aerospace is the largest supplier of
these items to Airbus today.
For further information please go to: www.gknaerospace.com
Oct-15