AEROSPACE SUPPLEMENT
THE LAND OF SALSA & LANDING GEAR MACHINING
Machining
excellence
ELEB is a supplier of
landing gear to Embraer
Right: A component
before & after machining
São José dos Campos, a city with 700,000 inhabitants located in the
tropical highland of São Paulo state, is one of the most important
technology centres of Brazil. The city is home to subsidiaries of several
international groups, as well as numerous training and research centres,
especially those focusing on aeronautics. And it is here that the landing
gear for Embraer’s jets is made, by ELEB Equipamentos Ltda (ELEB)
Embraer, the leading manufacturer of
12
commercial jets up to 150 seats, is the
main exporter of high-value-added goods
in Brazil and is creating two joint ventures with
aerospace giant Boeing. The company’s
portfolio also includes executive aviation and
military transport aircrafts.
WFL Millturn technology (Kyal Machine
Tools, https://is.gd/ebeced) plays a major role
in the thousands of daily Embraer take-offs
and landings, because ELEB employs ve such
machines in the production of the complex
landing gear components the aircraft use.
ELEB specialises in the manufacture and
development of landing gear, hydraulic
actuators, electrical and mechanical valves,
plus so-called pylons. Employing more than
600, it has developed into one of the key
suppliers in the aerospace industry.
The ELEB team has taken on a wide range
of challenges over the past 35 years. In the
1990s, the subsidiary of Empresa Brasileira
de Aeronáutica S.A. produced landing gear and
hydraulic assemblies for the EMB-314 series
and the ERJ-145 and won its rst tender for
the S-92 Sikorsky. “The next steps just fell
into place. Starting with the production of
landing gear plus assemblies for the E-Jet
series and the development and production of
a complete shipset for the Entry & Light
Executive series in the 2000s,” reports
Reinaldo Ponte Júnior, senior manager in
production technology. The company has been
carrying out ongoing work on new series since
2010, with these leading to the development
and production of parts for the KC-390 series,
a medium-size, twin-engine jet-powered military
transport aircraft that rst ew in 2015 but
with rst deliveries last year, and for the
Embraer E2 medium-range jet airliners that
entered service in 2018.
ELEB must not only deliver highest quality
and reliability, but also offer a high degree of
exibility. Production of small batch sizes is
the norm, as once production is complete the
products undergo numerous tests. This means
that very short set-up times are essential when
manufacturing landing gear. So, when ELEB
started to look for its rst complete machining
centre in 2005, set-up times, machining
quality and progressive technology were the
deal breakers. Since then, these requirements
have grown year-on-year and only a few
providers were in a position to ful l them.
Easily machined aluminium, plus high
strength or hardened steel, as well as
stainless materials like titanium, have to be
machined ef ciently. Deep hole drilling and
deep internal machining with long, dampened
boring bars are carried out, with very high
cutting volume and highest precision required.
This demands contradictory requirements for
the machine, such as extreme stability, high
dynamics and short auxiliary process times.
Today’s main focus is on daily monitoring of
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). This
February 2020 www.machinery.co.uk @MachineryTweets
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