Browse Topic: Finishing
With the increasing demand for material microimaging analysis, there is a growing need for advanced precision grinding and polishing equipment, especially for metals, ceramics, and composites. Existing automated systems struggle with handling complex material challenges. This paper presents a fully automated adaptive grinding and polishing machine based on an STM32 microcontroller that handles multi-material samples. The system includes modules for sample access, cleaning, pad replacement, human-computer interaction, and equipment communication. The STM32 microcontroller executes grinding and polishing tasks based on instructions from the host computer while dynamically adjusting PID control parameters using an improved weighted average optimization algorithm. This approach enhances control accuracy, stability, and overall surface treatment quality compared to traditional PID control methods.
Five-Axis CNC machines have become essential for creating the complex geometries demanded by industries such as aerospace and defense. These advanced machines offer superior part accessibility and minimize the need for repositioning, enabling shops to eliminate secondary set-ups and post-processing. However, for many machine shops, unlocking the full performance potential of five-axis equipment requires more than sophisticated motion control: it also demands higher spindle speeds. Traditional five-axis machines often top out at spindle speeds between 6,000 and 15,000 RPM. While this is sufficient for heavy roughing operations using large diameter tools, when it comes to finishing intricate features or micro-drilling, small tools require consistent spindle speeds of 40,000 to 90,000 RPM on the toolpath to function effectively. Without that capability, shops risk poor surface finishes, broken tools and unacceptably long cycle times. This is where governed high-speed air-driven spindles offer a transformative upgrade.
Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRPs) have become essential in modern aerospace structures, from fuselage skins and wing components to nacelles, interior structures, and a growing range of primary load-bearing parts. Their high strength-to-weight ratio delivers major benefits in fuel efficiency, payload capacity, and fatigue performance. Yet achieving reliable adhesive bonds on CFRP surfaces remains a persistent engineering challenge. The low intrinsic surface energy of composites - particularly under thermal cycling, vibration, and moisture exposure - limits bond durability unless surfaces are properly prepared. Plasma surface treatment has emerged as a pivotal solution, offering a fast, controllable, and non-destructive way to increase surface energy, improve wettability, and enhance adhesion across complex geometries. This is especially important as the aerospace industry transitions from thermoset to thermoplastic composites (TPCs), which enable faster processing, lower production costs, and better recyclability.
The growing environmental, economic, and social challenges have spurred a demand for cleaner mobility solutions. In response to the transformative changes in the automotive sector, manufacturers must prioritize digital validation of products, manufacturing processes, and tools prior to mass production. This ensures efficiency, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness. By utilizing 3D modelling of factory layouts, factory planners can digitally validate production line changes, substantially reducing costs when introducing new products. One key innovation involves creating 3D models using point cloud data from factory scans. Traditional factory scanning processes face limitations like blind spots and periodic scanning intervals. This research proposes using drones equipped with LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology for 3D scanning, enabling real-time mapping, autonomous operation, and efficient data collection. Drones can navigate complex areas, access small spaces, and optimize factory planning with precise point cloud data. This enables planners to maintain updated layouts and implement necessary modifications for future projects. However, the current manual process of converting point cloud data into 3D models is time-intensive, causing delays in meeting market demand. To address this, point cloud data is segmented into two categories: (a) standard 3D components from libraries and (b) non-standard components like machines and air ducts. Automating the point cloud-to-3D modelling process yields significant improvements in conversion results. While automation enhances the placement of standard objects with geometric precision, smoother surface finishing is still required for non-standard components.
San Francisco startup Canvas has developed a robotic system handling one of the most labor-intensive trades in construction: drywall finishing. Leveraging robotic arms from Universal Robots, Canvas has built a machine that reduces the usual five to seven days of spraying and sanding the drywall to just around two days for both Level 4 and Level 5 finishes.
Hybrid additive manufacturing (AM) and subtractive manufacturing (SM) processes utilize the combination of AM (e.g., LPBF and DED) and SM (e.g., milling and turning operations) to produce the final part. Due to the poor surface roughness resulting from the uneven melting of powders in AM, the subtractive process is a necessary finishing operation to improve the surface roughness of the AM part. The hybrid AM/SM technology combines the benefits of AM and SM processes to create complex geometry while introducing good surface finish and compressive stress to prevent crack initiation. However, the relationship between large process parameter space and the residual stress/distortion in the part is not well understood, which impedes the adoption of hybrid AM/SM to minimize the residual stress in the final product. To expedite the process optimization, we establish a pipeline for the sequential modeling of additive manufacturing (AM) and subtractive manufacturing (SM) processes. Key accomplishments achieved under this study include (1) development of thermal abstraction technique for the AM process to speed up the macroscale level heat transfer analysis based on the manufacturing factors including scanning vector, laser power, dwelling time, etc.; (2) development of the sequentially coupled thermal-mechanical model to predict the residual stress and distortion after AM process by passing the temperature history obtained from heat transfer analysis to the mechanical analysis at each time point; (3) validation of the thermal-mechanical model for AM using thin-wall structure from literature and cantilever beam structure from UNT’s experiments data; (4) conduction of the parametric study on the chamber temperature and part design in the AM process to demonstrate how the temperature gradient and supporting structure affect the residual stress and distortion; (5) exploration of macro and micro scale models to predict the bulk and surface residual stress after cutting; (6) applying the developed modeling framework to tailoring the hybrid AM/SM process. To support model verification and demonstration, we print cantilever beam structure with different supporting structure designs and cutting strategies to study how these factors affect the final part residual stress and distortion. The data collected in the printing and cutting process is used to examine the applicability of the developed simulation tool.
Multiple experimental studies were performed on galling intiation for variety of tooling materials, coatings and surface treatments, sheet materials with various surface textures and lubrication. Majority of studies were performed for small number of samples in laboratory conditions. In this paper, the methodology of screening experiment using different combinations of tooling configurations and sheet material in the lab followed by the high volume small scale U-bend performed in the progressive die on the mechanical press is discussed. The experimental study was performed to understand the effect of the interface between the sheet metal and the die surface on sheet metal flow during stamping operations. Aluminum sheet AA5754 2.5mm thick was used in this experimentation. The sheet was tested in laboratory conditions by pulling between two flat insert with controllable clamping force and through the drawbead system with variable radii of the female bead. Comparing pulling forces during sheet metal flow through the testing setup provides information on flow resistance along the interface between the sheet and the tool surfaces. Onset of galling can be detected by the growth of the pulling force. In addition, it is defined by measurement of the surface of the tool and the scratches on the surface of the samples. Typical galling is seen as lines of sheet material deposit on the surface of the die parallel to the sheet material sliding. Most of galling is observed in the areas where lubricant can be forced out of the contact zone, such as edges of the strip, die entry radii or female bead radius.
At nearly every trade show where Beckhoff Automation presents the XPlanar system, attendees stop in their tracks to watch. They comment on how exciting and interesting the magnetically levitating and flying movers are. And then they ask, “What can you actually do with it?”
In the 1st generation Toyota "MIRAI" fuel cell stack, carbon protective surface coating is deposited after individual Ti bipolar plate being press-formed into the desired shape. Such a process has relatively low production speed, not ideal for large scale manufacturing. A new coating concept, consisting of a nanostructured composite layer of titanium oxide and carbon particles, was devised to enable the incorporation of both the surface treatment and the press processes into the roll-to-roll production line. The initial coating showed higher than expected contact resistance, of which the root cause was identified as nitrogen contamination during the annealing step that inhibited the formation of the composite film structure. Upon the implementation of a vacuum furnace chamber as the countermeasure, the issue was resolved, and the improved coating could meet all the requirements of productivity, conductivity, and durability for use in the newer generation of fuel cell stacks.
The performance of low-adhesion surfaces in a realistic, in-flight icing environment with supercooled liquid droplets is evaluated using a NACA 0018 airfoil in the National Research Council of Canada Altitude Icing Wind Tunnel. This project was completed in collaboration with McGill University, the University of Toronto and the NRC Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies Centre in March 2022. Each collaborator used significantly different methods to produce low-adhesion surface treatments. The goal of the research program was to demonstrate if the low-adhesion surfaces reduced the energy required to de-ice or anti-ice an airfoil in an in-flight icing environment. Each collaborator had been developing their own low-adhesion surfaces, using bench tests in cold rooms and a spin rig in the wind tunnel to evaluate their performance. The most promising surface treatments were selected for testing on the airfoil. The de-icing and anti-icing performance of the low-adhesion surfaces was compared to that of a bare aluminum leading edge using a heated-air piccolo tube ice protection system. Overall, the surface treatments were not found to provide any significant improvement in de-icing or anti-icing performance over a bare aluminum surface. However, the results were very useful in identifying ways to improve the surface treatments for better performance in icing conditions and these lessons may be integrated into future test campaigns.
This specification provides requirements and procedures for gas-pressure leak testing of parts.
This specification covers the requirements for brush plating of zinc-nickel by electrodeposition.
This SAE Aerospace Information Report (AIR) is intended to document and provide access to information obtained by an industry survey. It summarizes and documents data regarding possible alternatives to the use of cadmium plating on general connectors and connector accessories typically used in aerospace and military defense electrical interconnect systems.
This specification covers one weight and type of weave of aramid cloth.
This SAE Aerospace Information Report (AIR) is limited to the subject of aircraft fuel systems and the questions concerning the requirements for electrical bonding of the various components of the system as related to Static Electric Charges, Fault Current, Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and Lightning Strikes (Direct and Indirect Effects). This AIR contains engineering guidelines for the design, installation, testing (measurement) and inspection of electrical bonds.
This specification covers one weight and type of weave of aramid cloth.
This specification covers the requirements for producing brazed joints on aluminum and aluminum alloys by torch or furnace brazing.
This specification covers a corrosion- and heat-resistant steel in the form of two types of thin-wall, close-tolerance hydraulic tubing 0.125 to 2.00 inches (3.18 to 50.8 mm), inclusive, in nominal OD.
This specification covers the requirements for producing brazed joints of aluminum and aluminum alloys by immersion in a molten flux bath.
This SAE Aerospace Recommended Practice (ARP) provides recommendations for additive manufacturing (AM) designed/repaired aircraft components.
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