Spherical plain bearings excel in landing gear applications

In the aerospace industry, the importance of landing gear maintenance can’t be overestimated because the components and systems must operate safely and efficiently in the most demanding and often extreme conditions – every time. Regarded by some aviation experts as mechanical marvels, landing gear had initial 2021 sales in the global market valued at $10.79 billion and predicted to grow to $22.90 billion by 2030.

Aerospace landing gear maintenance represents around 20% of total aircraft maintenance costs because it directly impacts safety, reliability, and performance, where even minor defects or failures could lead to catastrophic consequences.

Regular and precise maintenance ensures components are in optimal working condition, minimizing the risk of malfunctions, accidents, or downtime, extending the operational lifespan of equipment, and reducing operational costs.

Bearings are an essential component in today’s landing gear systems and correct installation is critical to harness the full potential of bearing performance and safe operation, as the consequences of a poorly installed bearing could be far reaching. This applies to initial installation of an airframe assembly, a main shaft on a jet engine, or a suspension system.

Precision bearing specialist Carter Manufacturing is an approved aerospace bearing supplier to industry-leading landing gear manufacturers and is accredited to ISO9001 incorporating the requirements of AS9120 with flow down from AS9100.

Due to the extreme loads and forces occurring in landing gear systems, spherical plain bearings are an ideal option and are typically larger than in other aerospace applications, which can also present challenges in tooling design. Many of the larger landing gear applications require tooling unable to be mounted in a pillar drill or drill press to install or replace the bearing. Therefore, portable tools that don’t compromise performance must be used.

Attention to detail is critical, so careful consideration of tooling design, such as the number of cutting teeth, their profile in portable cutting tools, and increased rolling elements in swage tools for larger bearing circumferences. Tooling must be as user-friendly as possible, so Carter Manufacturing designs with focus on the end-user to ensure tools can be used by a single fitter/operator.

Carter Manufacturing

Digital twin of a machine tool

Siemens and DMG MORI presented the first end-to-end digital twin for machine tool machining on Siemens Xcelerator. Based on the Digital Native CNC Sinumerik One, the offering includes the digital twin of the controller, the customer specific DMG MORI machine tool, and the workpiece.

A digital twin for machines enables improvements for meeting the challenges of sustainability, flexibility, and time-to-market. The digital twin helps prevent programming errors that cause scrap and damage to the real machine. It enables up to 40% faster production ramp-up, significantly reducing energy consumption of the real machine.

It additionally helps minimize unproductive machine times up to 75% because testing and running programs is moved from the real machine to the virtual world.

Through its digital twin, Sinumerik One is the key element for digital transformation and helps simulate and test machining processes entirely virtually. This allows NC programs to be completely programmed, simulated, and optimized in a virtual environment before workpieces are manufactured.

Siemens