JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #72 - April/May 2012 - 47

CNC

New 5-axis composite machining centres for aerospace manufacturers
With the display of ten machines, including two new models, the latest Belotti Open House event attracted about 60 operators from the advanced materials industry. Machine versatility, evolution and intelligence are the main features on which the company is concentrating for 5-axis composite machining.
Fabiano Villa Product Sales Manager Belotti S.p.A.

evolution as its strongest belief and today this concept is more strategic than ever.

Quality and flexibility
The company’s wide range of high-speed, high-accuracy products have progressively developed towards a higher level of productivity, quality and flexibility – the main requirements of the sector’s players. Belotti’s answer to quality and flexibility needs is the new MDL machining centre, displayed during the event, which is equipped with double independent bridges featuring both 5-axis waterjet and milling technology, with a 22-kW milling spindle. This machine will be delivered to the Turkish TAI company, who needed equipment to produce composite elevators for the new Airbus 350 and found in Belotti’s MDL the right answer.

elotti recently organized an Open House event at its premises in Suisio (Bergamo, Italy) for all the Italian companies operating in the aerospace and automotive fields, in collaboration with Delcam Italia, Lectra Italia, Siemens Italia and DueZero. The company has been designing specific plants ensuring highly accurate and reliable machining in applications such as the complex lines of an aircraft, or when using special high-tech materials such as carbon, Kevlar and light alloys. Major operators in the aeronautical field have adopted machining centres for milling operations on models and moulds and for trimming composite parts. Over the years, Belotti has always kept

Fig.2 : Universal Vacuum Fixture System (UVF)

Innovative technologies
The main feature is the use of two complementary technologies in the same system, such as milling and waterjet cutting, for machining large-sized composite parts commonly used in the aerospace industry. The system can carry out all types of milling and drilling operations, especially on aluminium inserts and composite titanium, as well as waterjet cutting. The

two machining units are installed on two independent bridges and can work simultaneously wherever possible, without moving the part. The system is also provided with an automatic universal clamping system designed to avoid large, expensive clamping fixtures. The UVF (Universal Vacuum Fixtures) system developed by Belotti S.p.A. is an automatic fixture system designed for rigid vacuum clamping of metal and/or composite parts for several operations such as cutting, drilling or waterjet cutting. This programmable system offers the advantages of eliminating all the costs related to design and production of specific equipment, as well as improving part quality and production times. The CNC system runs the machining head movements and positions the actuators to copy the part’s surface profile. This way, parts with different geometries can be machined one after the other without fixture set-up time loss. n
More information: www.belotti.com

Feature aerospace

Fig.1 : Belotti’s workshop during the Open House

No72 April - May 2012 /

jec composites magazine 47

http://www.belotti.com

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #72 - April/May 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #72 - April/May 2012