Machining Efficiency Takes off for Aerospace Manufacturer

Working in a 65,000ft² facility, Phoenix AZ-based CAD Enterprise’s 93 full-time employees have manufactured components for more than 25 different aircraft engines. A significant amount of CAD Enterprises’ business comes from the aerospace industry, with a good portion of that being the CFM-56 fuel nozzle for Parker Hannifin.

CAD Enterprises Inc. has manufactured fuel nozzles for nearly 30 years. During those 30 years, the company has become the sole non-Parker supplier for the CFM-56 fuel nozzle, one of only a few programs that are not multi-sourced by Parker Hannifin. “We were able to build this supplier relationship because of the trust and cooperation that has developed over almost three decades of doing business together,” states Jay Donkersloot, vice president of CAD Enterprises.

To maintain their excellent supplier relationships and fulfill new customer requirements, CAD Enterprises continually examines and implements the latest machining processes that will allow them to produce parts as efficiently as possible. Their primary machine tool supplier, Methods Machine Tools Inc., Tempe, AZ, has worked with CAD Enterprises since 1980, offering extensive engineering and application support. In a recent project, the two companies collaborated to improve the machining process for manufacturing the CFM-56 fuel nozzles as well as the fuel nozzle for the TFE Turtle Body.

The CFM-56 is a complex part made up of several components that include a housing, inner tube, upper heat shield, outer tube, bottom heat shield, and an adaptor. These six different components are made out of several types of material including 625 Inconel, 347 stainless steel, and 321 stainless steel.

“Incorporating multiple types of material is extremely important for this product line,” according to Donkersloot. “One end of the fuel nozzle is in an atmospheric temperature, while a few inches away, the other end is inside the combustion chamber of a jet engine. The other reason for multiple types of material is because it is simply the best way to join the material.”

With six different parts going into the CFM-56 fuel nozzle, and the extremely tight tolerances that must be held for the assembly and brazing processes, the machining process must be extremely precise and efficient to produce an accurate part.

The TFE Turtle Body, the project that launched CAD Enterprises into business, is a fuel nozzle made up of 11 different components and 5 different types of material including 347 stainless steel, 321 stainless steel, A286, Hastelloy-C, and 718 Inconel. When machining the components for the TFE Turtle Body, CAD Enterprises has upgraded their machining process several times, beginning with a drill jig, and advancing to a Matsuura MC 510 vertical Tiger Mill and then the Matsuura ES 450 horizontal.

Methods Machine Tools recently recommended the Matsuura ES 800 high-speed 5-axis vertical milling machine to produce the complex CFM-56 and TFE nozzles. CAD Enterprises purchased two of the Matsuura machines in July of 2009. In doing so, CAD Enterprises reduced the number of operations from six performed on multiple machines, to two on a single machine. They eliminated multiple setups and increased throughput, resulting in an overall cost per part reduction. Furthermore, by reducing the cycle time by 50%, and set-up time by 75%, they now produce all of the components in house and have reduced their dependency on outside vendors.

In addition, by switching over to the Matsuura ES 800 vertical machines, CAD Enterprises gained more spindle speed. Both vertical milling centers have 20,000rpm spindles, high-speed programming software and a large capacity of memory. CAD Enterprises is finding new jobs for the VMCs as well. For example, they machined an aluminum vane, used to direct and control airflow into an auxiliary power unit (used by most commercial aircraft), on the Matsuura ES 800. The machining time of the vane was reduced from 20 minutes to approximately 12 minutes.

Moreover, when CAD Enterpises needed to manufacture a fuel nozzle for the new GEnx aircraft engine program for the Boeing 787, Methods Machine Tools engineering manager Bruce Fields, began an application analysis by performing test evaluations on a 625 inconel workpiece. The GEnx program, which was in the development phase at the time of these tests, features a new engine design including a complex fuel nozzle resulting in a significant increase in fuel efficiency and engine thrust.

Fields performed several time studies to determine where improvements could be made, and what would be the best way to reduce or eliminate any inefficiency.

“Bruce spent a lot of time working with us. His time studies covered such areas as speeds and feeds, tooling issues for specialized machinery, and how certain tooling performs on different types of material,” Donkersloot explains. “Bruce did extensive testing on cutting technology and methodology of high speed machining and recommended the Fanuc RoboDrill 4-axis vertical machining center for this application.”

By maintaining an excellent working relationship with Methods Machine Tools over the past 30 plus years, in addition to the Matsuura, RoboDrill and various other machines supplied by Methods, CAD Enterprises added profitability to their bottom line by reducing their cycle times and set-up times. Based on the success of the Matsuura ES 800, CAD Enterprises purchased a Matsuura H Plus 630 horizontal machining center in April 2010, to help meet new customer requirements, and enable them to take on larger aerospace jobs.

CAD Enterprises Inc.
Phoenix, AZ
cadmachining.com

Method Machine Tools, Inc.
Tempe, AZ (Corporate headquarters in Sudbury, MA)
methodsmachine.com