MAIN ROTOR BLADE BONDING AUTOMATION

All six types of MDHC’s 300 and 500 Series Helicopter Main Rotor (M/R) blades have metal abrasion strips on their leading edges to provide additional wear protection. These abrasion strips are secondarily bonded to the M/R blade’s leading edge, within strict bondline thickness tolerances. This operation must be done with a bonding tool that can provide proper heat transfer and pressure conditions that produce an excellent metal-to-metal bond between dissimilar metals. Furthermore, on some M/R blades, the tooling used to bond these abrasion strips cannot apply too much pressure aft of the leading edge spar due to the minimal structural support in this section of the M/R blade.