XTRU Suite Manufacturing
TM
Featured Parts
-2009
The “-2009” is a part out of our customer's production workload. We demonstrated the part on-site at the customer's facility as a proof of concept. Doing so springboarded DOD acquisition of the XTRU machines. Eventually we won a production contract from our customer for these!
The part is a T-shaped cross section with a curved flange (from the mill), making it a specialty or non-standard cross section. We milled these on our XM-3 machine and joggled these on XJ-3 with a custom soft jaw to support the curved flange adequately.
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Watch -2009 Highlights
We alleviated our customer’s pain point caused by springback of the material on the joggling die and warpage during heat treatment, by processing these directly in the final condition material and verified via penetrant inspection that this was done so without any adverse impact to the part or material.
The final result:
XtruMach's milling and XtruJog's joggling capabilities produced -2009/-2010 part for our customer
Final part showing machining and joggling
-102T
The -102T part is a T- cross section extrusion requiring stretch forming to a variable contour, milling to profile and chem milling to thickness per the standard process specifications. The complexity of this part required the use of XF, XM, and XJ. We demonstrated the full suite of XTRU™ machines to produce the -102T directly in final 7075-T temper.
The cross section and overall contour of the part fell well within the capabilities of our XF machine, but had one localized region with a very tight angle or “kink” that was tighter than the achievable range for XF. We were able to use our XJ machine to perform a series of joggles in that region of the part to bring the tight angle into spec.
Watch XF-3 in action!
We then used our XM milling machine to profile the part and demonstrated mechanical thinning in place of chemical milling. Thinning was required on the back flange of the part, as well as on one side of the web. The capability to mechanically thin parts has significant potential in reducing extrusion inventories that are required to be kept on hand if parts can be mechanically milled down to the required profile and thickness, while avoiding toxic chemical baths.
Watch XM-3 in action!
The final result: XTRU's capabilities produced -102T part without building part specific tooling!
Final part showing all forming and machining (profiling and thinning)