Take Off My Aviation Era

Chapter 517: Key equipment

As we all know, the US military's f-14 "Tomcat" carrier-based fighter is a classic combat aircraft, the biggest feature is the design of variable swept wings.

It can be called a miracle in the 1970s, because the variable swept wing is not only complicated, but also requires very high structural strength of the entire body. It is slightly worse, and the wing is easily caused by non-aerodynamic drag and load during the change. The fuselage structure is fatigued, and the life of the overall fuselage is reduced; in severe cases, the fuselage can easily disintegrate and cause accidents.

Because of this, despite the popularity of swept-wing fighters, there are only two and a half of them in the world that can be produced and widely used on a large scale. Two of them are the United States and the Soviet Union, and the other half is Europe.

Needless to say, the United States and the Soviet Union, from fighter jets to bombers, the entire generation of models have used variable swept wings. The reason why Europe says it is half, because apart from the "Storm" fighter jets, there is no full series of modified wings. Sweep-wing fleet.

The reason for this is very simple. Europe lacks large-scale electron beam welding machines and cannot manufacture a larger central wing box that can withstand the aerodynamic structure of the variable sweep wing.

Yes, the key to solving the variable sweep wing body structure is the central wing box with a very strong overall structure.

Under normal circumstances, to maintain the integrity of the overall structure, the application of the integral casting process is the safest. However, in the field of aircraft manufacturing, especially the manufacturing of advanced aircraft, every inch of space is a valuable asset for designers, perhaps a joint , Or need to install a certain device, perhaps a controller connected to a certain part, in short, the huge central wing box, designers can not ignore it as a blank.

This brings about a problem, that is, how to keep the required internal structure and complicated cabin to the maximum extent during casting.

In addition, all parts of the aircraft must be thin and light. Take the f-14 center wing box skin as an example. The thinnest titanium alloy skin is only 0.025mm, which is only as thin as a piece of a4 paper.

The overall casting is worry-free, but it cannot be done to such an extreme degree. It will inevitably require complicated machining in the later stage. However, the overall casting is already formed and it is difficult to machine it again. The impact on the overall structure is the same. Can not be ignored.

Therefore, the best way is to manufacture in sections, and then use welding to splice them into a whole to form an integrated overall structure.

Electronic welding plays an extremely critical role.

Because the electronic welding process has good thermal stability and easy control; the energy is concentrated, the speed is fast, the welding deformation is small, and the quality of the weld is good. All of the above, in conjunction with the vacuum environment, can increase the utilization rate of materials, indirectly reduce the overall structure weight, and increase components It is a rare precision welding process in the aerospace field.

Take the f-14 as an example. Its central wing box is 7 meters long and 0.9 meters wide. The whole structure is composed of 53 titanium alloy parts, combined together, a total of 70 welds, all manufactured by electron beam welding technology, welding thickness It is .2 mm, and the total length of all welds is 55 meters.

As for the effect, it goes without saying that not only is the overall structure of the f-14 central wing box lightened by 273 kg compared to the traditional welding process and the electron beam welding process, but the overall strength is also very good. This has been effective since the f-14 accident. It can be seen that as long as it is not a particularly serious air accident, the f-14's central wing box rarely breaks.

Even in some seemingly serious accidents, the central wing box remains intact, and can be used as a spare part after being recycled. This shows how excellent the overall central wing box of the f-14 is.

Today, the ej9 electron beam welding machine that produces the f-14 central wing box is in front of Zhuang Jianye and others. It is absolutely nonsense to say that it is not excited, because what it means is that the 5 meters long and 2.3 meters wide that trouble the advanced light transport platform, The 0.8-meter-high overall central wing box can be considered to have fallen.

It is necessary to know that the ej9 electron beam welding machine that can produce the central wing box component of f-14 that is 7 meters long and 0.9 meters wide, the entire vacuum chamber is 7.5 meters in length, 2.8 meters in width, and 2.5 meters in height. The space area is 53.2 square meters. Meter.

Equipped with w two electron beam welding guns, the welding mechanism is mobile automatic welding, the electron beam welding gun is set on the gantry hanger in the vacuum chamber and can move along the length, width and height.

It belongs to the advanced level in the mid-1970s.

Yes, even the same model of F-14 is still not the most cutting-edge production equipment in advanced developed countries. After all, it is now in the late 1980s. The electron beam welding vacuum chambers in western developed countries have been hundreds of square meters. Electron beam welding guns It has been replaced by a flexible mechanical arm, and the CNC program written with high-precision industrial control software has already broken through the simple motion in the three directions of length, width and height.

Similar to complex circular motion, multi-angle motion, and rotary motion can be easily achieved.

Among them, the brand-new vacuum welding equipment built by the United States is even more abnormal. Not only can the electron beam welding gun realize multi-angle movement, but it can also be precisely adjusted according to the CNC program according to the different parts and the different thickness of the parts, with a higher degree of automation and integration. Stronger, far ahead of the world.

The Soviet Union went to the other extreme, that is, all kinds of big ones. In order to produce the Tu-160 strategic bomber and the "Blizzard" space shuttle, the Soviet Union manufactured super large electron beam welding with a vacuum chamber of 673 square meters in the Ural Mountains at no cost. Later, I thought it was not enough. I built a 1,300 square meter, known as the world’s largest super-large electron beam welding machine.

It turned out to be built~www.ltnovel.com~ but I found that these two big treasures are super power-hungry, especially the large electron beam welding machine with a size of 1300 square meters at the back. 80% of the electricity in the Ural military production base is the same as vacuum suction, all of which are pumped away by this product.

Therefore, the Soviets had to coordinate with other departments every time they used it, and they could only use it during the low peak period of power consumption from 2 to 4 in the morning. Otherwise, as long as the goods were turned on, the entire Ural would be powered off.

Of course, Ascendas Group will not engage in such a big thing, because it is equivalent to the power of the entire southwest to supply such a thing, which is too cost-effective.

Of course, the current ej9 electron beam welding machine is indeed a bit small, and the welding range is still somewhat limited, but Zhuang Jianye is not very worried, because Peng Chuan and Wei Guangping have already begun to study this key equipment with their respective teams. Based on their expertise in automatic assembly, flexible tooling, electrochemical perforation, and pulsating production lines, so-called key equipment such as ej9 electron beam welders, in some respects, is a layer of window paper.

Peng Chuan didn’t even bother to knock on the door. He asked Xiao Zheng next door, and he pushed the door directly in. Then he patted the drawing on his desk. An upgraded version of the ej9 electron beam welding machine for engines is out.

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like