MACH seminar programme includes aerospace focus

Running from Monday afternoon till Friday morning, 20 seminars will take place at MACH 2006 in a purpose built theatre and cover areas like metal forming, metrology and grinding technology.

Following the success of the MACH 2004 Technical Seminars, MACH organisers the UK's manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA) have again collaborated with David Aspinwall of Birmingham University to put together a comprehensive programme for 2006, focussed on new developments in manufacturing technologies.

Running from Monday afternoon till Friday morning, 20 seminars will take place in a purpose built theatre in Hall 4.

Each seminar will last 20 minutes, with 10 minutes allocated for a question and answer session with each speaker.

Topics have been chosen to appeal to a wide range of MACH visitors and cover areas such as metal forming, metrology and grinding technology.

As well as pulling together the programme Aspinwall and his colleague Leung Soo will be presenting a seminar entitled 'Machining technologies for advanced aerospace alloys', which will take place at 2pm on Wednesday 17 May.

Each of the speakers has been encouraged to provide information about their seminar to aid visitors' decisions on how to get the most out of their time at MACH 2006.

The Birmingham University seminar will be introduced via definitions of machinability and the mechanical and physical properties of a range of nickel-based superalloys and titanium alloys of the type used for aero-engine manufacture.

The allocation of particular alloys within the engine for compressor discs, turbine and compressor blades etc will also be detailed.

Following on from this, the development of nickel-based superalloys will be outlined together with an assessment of some of the newer titanium alloys which are expected to see service within the next five years and include burn resistant titanium and gamma titanium aluminide.

The machinability of alpha-beta alloys such as Ti-6Al-4V will also be presented in order to contrast performance.

Operating parameters and tool materials will be given for a range of machining operations including turning, face milling, high speed end milling and grinding.

The high speed machining of Inconel 718 and gamma-TiAl will be covered in some depth with reference to tool coating suitability and fluid application together with novel processing techniques such as point grinding.

Recent results from creep feed grinding tests on gamma-TiAl involving conventional and superabrasive wheels will also highlighted.

Commenting on the announcement of the seminar programme, MACH exhibition manager, Graham Shearsmith said: 'David's work on pulling together this programme has been invaluable.

His knowledge of the industry and the show has meant that he has been able to pull together a programme targeted specifically at MACH visitors, and building on 2004, as we were able to analyse which topics worked and did not work and build in developments in technology from this.".

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