Product category:
Heat treatment services
News Release from: Brookhouse Holdings | Subject: 12.2m working length autoclave
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 14 November 2003
Large autoclave anneals transport
aircraft tanks
A recently installed, 12.2m working length autoclave carried out post-weld annealing on fuel tanks as the repairers did not have a large enough annealing unit.
The recently installed, 12.2m working length autoclave at Brookhouse Composites of Darwen, has been used to carry out post-weld annealing on fuel tanks from a giant Hercules C-130 transport aircraft, which had been repaired by Marshall Aerospace, of Cambridge Marshall Aerospace, which operates from its Cambridge City Airport, UK, is the UK's leading privately owned aerospace company, specialising in the design, development
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 25 Dec 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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maintenance and conversion of military, civil and business and general aircraft.
The company is also a Lockheed Martin C-130 Service Centre and has been involved with the major design and modification of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft outside the USA.
As such, it has dealt with over 24 Hercules operators throughout the world, providing repair capability, parts replacement, inspection, modification, maintenance and major upgrades.
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One recent maintenance and repair operation involved a Hercules aircraft from the Swedish airforce.
Amongst other things, this aircraft had suffered considerable damage to its underwing, port and starboard fuel tanks.
Part of the repair necessitated a circumferential weld of both aluminium tanks.
However, as this weld was located in the central region of the 9m long tanks, Marshall's own, on-site heat treatment ovens were not long enough to accommodate the tanks to carry out the post-weld annealing.
Marshall Aerospace has an on-going relationship with Broohouse Paxford of Huntingdon, and were put in touch with sister company, Brookhouse Composites, in Darwen, who had recently installed 12.2m long and 4.2m long autoclaves at its newly commissioned composites engineering building.
Although the autoclaves are primarily intended for curing composite components and tooling at strictly controlled temperature and pressure, it was realised that the 220degC maximum operating temperature of the 12.2m unit would be sufficient to effect the post-weld annealing.
Consequently, Brookhouse engineers visited Marshall Aerospace and it was decided that a purpose-designed holding jig would be required if the tanks were to be transported to Darwen without possibility of damage.
Working from original Lockheed drawings, Brookhouse, who also enjoy an international reputation in the design and manufacture of aircraft testing and ground support equipment, designed and produced a precision saddle jig, which could be used for the safe transport of both tanks together.
Moreover the jig was provided with integral castors so that the two tanks could be simply wheeled into the autoclave on arrival at Brookhouse, without the need for further handling and hence without danger of further damage.
To carry out the annealing, Brookhouse followed the precise time-temperature heating profile set out in the Lockheed Martin manual and then devised a similar profile for the cooling phase, using the precise computerised controllability of the autoclave.
Following the successful treatment, the tanks were delivered back to Cambridge for re-fitting to the aircraft.
The new autoclave is one of five computer-controlled units at Brookhouse's Darwen site, allowing the company the capability to treat an extremely wide range of components in terms of both size and geometry.
Brookhouse Composites is one of a group of companies within Brookhouse Holdings plc, which together provide the expertise, facilities and resources in design and manufacture to meet the extremely high demands of today's aerospace industry.
This total capability includes the production of moulding tools in composite materials and metals, the manufacture and repair of composite components to international approval standards, the manufacture of detailed components, such as metal skins and panels and the precision engineering of tooling, jigs and fixtures.
The Brookhouse Group recently became one of the first companies in the UK to be approved to the new Aerospace series quality management system AS/EN9100:2000, which recognises the Group's total commitment to quality and aerospace excellence.
Furthermore, Brookhouse Composites has recently been approved by Airbus Spares Support and Services to carry out repairs on Airbus composite components, adding to its existing approval to carry out repair and maintenance of aircraft components manufactured from composite materials for all European Airlines under JAR-145.
It has enjoyed approval from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in the UK since 1995 and was the first composite structures manufacturing company to gain approval for the manufacture of aircraft components which are accepted in all of the 37 countries, which constitute the Joint Aviation Authorities.
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