A better place to work
Autodesk’s generative design technology has been brought to bear on the
design of a new Airbus factory 03
3
AEROSPACE SUPPLEMENT
CONTENTS/FACILITY DESIGN NOVELTY
In this supplement Page
Editor – Andrew Allcock MIET
Art editor – Neil Young
Sales director – Joe Opitz
Sales manager – Beverly Jepson
Circulation manager – Chris Jones
Production – Chloe Jeakins
Publisher – Jon Benson
Record-setting installation
A dream manufacturing facility envisaged in 2016 is now on stream at US
rm Orizon Aerostructures, underpinned by Starrag machinery 10
Machining excellence
Landing gear for Embraer’s jets is made by ELEB Equipamentos (ELEB),
using multiple WFL Millturn machines 12
Fast, lightweight, strong
Plastic 3D-printed parts have a foothold in the aerospace sector,
sometimes replacing metal parts. Stratasys is a key player 15
Metal & composite benefi t
A UK aerospace rm praises Alphacam for its CNC machine programming
capabilities; a US rm opts for Jetcam products to support composite
material management and cutting 18
A better place to work
Engineering software giant Autodesk has been promoting generative
design in connection with component design for some time. But the
constraint-based approach has recently been used in designing a new,
more sustainable Airbus assembly facility in Germany. Andrew Allcock
has the story
www.machinery.co.uk February 2020
Machinery (incorporating Sheet Metal Industries)
MA Business
Hawley Mill, Hawley Rd, Dartford, Kent DA2 7TJ
Tel: 01322 221144 Fax: 01322 221188
© MA Business 2020
(ISSN print 1753-0482/online 2049-3312)
Origination by CCM
Printed in the UK by Pensord Press
Cover Image: whitelook / stock.adobe.com
“Our mission is to disrupt the status
quo and to introduce new
procedures, new technologies,”
explains Airbus’s Bastian Schaefer, who is
innovation manager in the Emerging
Technologies and Concepts group, which is
associated with the aerospace giant’s chief
technology of cer. Airbus has been working
with Autodesk since 2012, employing the
global software out t’s generative design
software. In brief, generative design applies
constraints that must be met, but which can
be achieved in hundreds, if not thousands,
of ways (see box, p6, for more).
This initially focused on structural design,
with one of its early and much heralded
successes being the production via additive
manufacturing of a cabin crew jump seat, a
‘bionic partition’ (see Machinery, Feb 2016,
p14 – https://is.gd/taceru – and image p4).
A more recent and similar structural use
relates to a vertical tail plane design (p6), but
the company is now also applying generative
design to con gure process routes and even
building architecture. “For instance, we wanted
to optimise wing production in our Broughton
/www.machinery.co.uk
/stock.adobe.com
/taceru