The thought of using welded assembly parts on a Commercial Jet airliner kind of creeps me out. Given the long life expediency and cycle times of a Commercial aircraft. Are the latest and greatest weldable aluminum alloys and manufacturing methods really that good?
Welding of assembly parts on the Airbus A380
- Thread starter Hirev
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what method would you prefer?
Rivets and bolts?
Magic?
Magic?
3M adhesive sounds good to me...
sticky back velcro?
#7 Skyhooks are effective.
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A wad of bazooka will do fine and smell bubblicious.
weld = thermal stress + stress concentration area
They've come a long way with polyureathane glue.
I prefer 5 minute epoxy myself.
I prefer 5 minute epoxy myself.
I worked @ a shop that did overhaul and repair of turbine engine components. As part of our standard operating procedure, we would send out "certified aerospace" weld wire for elemental analysis. One time, the wire failed miserably, probably not even close to the "advertised" composition.
BTW, I believe as part of the overhaul process, the welders identification is electroetched on the part.
BTW, I believe as part of the overhaul process, the welders identification is electroetched on the part.
I would have to disagree with that. Our Jaguar Xj8 is glued together out of aluminum. Jaguar claims it is 60% more rigid than a welded structure, and it sure feels like it - it is so much stiffer it isn't even fair to compare it to a conventional construction, and it is considerably lighter as well.
Unfortunately, so far as I know, only the 2004 and later Jaguar Xj8, the new 2007 XK, and now the Aston Martins are made this way, but when this technology and construction technique trickles down to everything else in the Ford line, as it eventually will, welded cars will be tough to sell. The glued together way is that much better and it is immediately apparent when you drive one.
I will say, though, that the Australian built Monaro is by far the stiffest welded car I have ever driven (nothing else even comes close) but it comes at a price - it's as heavy as the Xj8 and maybe two thirds the size.
That was the answer I was hoping you'd give.
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I have a feeling that many of you on this board would be scared half to death if you saw these wide-body structures disassembled during maintenance.
As for welding,, a high percentage of the airframes on the newer aircraft are simply glued together. Advanced composites has really come a long way in recent years.
A amazing bit of trivia is that on the gigantic 90,000 lb Rolls-Royce Trent engine, the fan blades are assembled using a metallic honeycomb core inside of the blade. Argon gas fills the cells and the whole assembly is glued together.
When you look at the differing techniques that are available, I personally feel that TIG welding combined with a highly skilled workforce provides for hugely reliable assemblies.
As for welding,, a high percentage of the airframes on the newer aircraft are simply glued together. Advanced composites has really come a long way in recent years.
A amazing bit of trivia is that on the gigantic 90,000 lb Rolls-Royce Trent engine, the fan blades are assembled using a metallic honeycomb core inside of the blade. Argon gas fills the cells and the whole assembly is glued together.
When you look at the differing techniques that are available, I personally feel that TIG welding combined with a highly skilled workforce provides for hugely reliable assemblies.
Win - It's not the glue that is better than welds in the Jag, but the completely revised structure. If welds were used where glue is, it sould be just as 'tight'.
Sure, clean sheet designs should always be a major improvement, but you can't possibly weld in all of the places where you can get glue, hence the stiffer, rigid, structure that this aircraft technology brings to cars.
Someone posted a thread about what a CEO of GM or Ford should do. Ford ought to get this structural technology out into all of their cars ASAP. It is a dramatic difference.
I'm not down on welding ( I have an old Lincoln welder), I just think it is time to move on.
Considering GM took well over year to fix the glued on top skin on C6 Corvette roofs, I wouldn't trust US car manufacturers with glued structures. The bean-counting roduction pukes will make small changes to take 1/10 cent out of the bonding process and a few years down the road, the chassis will start coming unravelled.
When you bond something with adhesive, in most cases it's possible to get a much larger contact patch than you could with a weld. Combine that with adhesives that can sometimes be stronger than the materials they connect and you can get a much stronger structure. The only thing I worry about with adhesives is deterioration over time, leading to weakening or failure where a weld would have continued to hold.
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