PROTECTS FROM DUST July 1st 2004 Aluminium alloy wing ribs and smaller components for the Airbus A380 are produced in Bristol. Although components are precision-machined on computer-controlled machine tools, they still need to be deburred and polished by hand. To remove the swarf and dust generated in these operations, Airbus has installed Nederman extraction systems.
Wing ribs are up to 4m long, which made extraction at source impractical for the rib polishing process. Nederman proposed a scheme to convert an entire room so that the harmful aluminium alloy dust from the polishing process could be extracted and filtered. The ceiling in the room was lowered, and airflow was designed to carry dust away from operators.
In cell F smaller components are produced. Here, seven tables have been installed, each with six extraction arms. These take swarf and dust from the workstations to a centralised high vacuum extraction and filtration plant. More articles from Nederman Limited: |