Tooling to mould and die for!

In a Q&A session, Sean Henson, Ascent Aerospace’s global product manager for composites and additive manufacturing provides the latest news on the company’s HyVarC tooling solutions.

Ascent Aerospace, a provider of layup tooling for composite aerostructures is championing its HyVarC, Hybrid Invar and Composite mould tooling. The company’s HyVarC layup tooling offers a cost-effective, lightweight, short lead-time solution for prototype and development applications.

Q) Please provide the latest information on the progress of your HyVarC hybrid Invar tooling.

The last 18 months have seen a lot of growth and development for HyVarC tooling. First, we were granted the patent for HyVarC from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, acknowledging the unique innovation and hard work that went into developing this solution. Secondly, we have seen a steady increase in the use of HyVarC tooling by our customer base; with over 40 tools built and delivered since this product hit the market. Our shop has fabricated a variety of shapes and sizes: from small, complex fairings and access panels to large wing skins and fuselage components.

Ascent has continued to work with all sectors of the industry as well, selling HyVarC tools to programmes of all sizes and types, including commercial, defence, and space. Finally, many of the planned developments that were discussed back in April 2018 have been completed. HyVarC tools are now capable of having any feature of a full production tooling system. That includes edge bars, drilling features and an integral vacuum to simplify part manufacture. More importantly, we’ve developed a BMI composite working surface that is ideal for higher temperature (425°F) or higher rate operations. This surface is more robust than the standard epoxy option and brings the HyVarC solution to production programmes as well as development ones.

Q) In a nutshell, what are the main benefits of HyVarC tools?

Elements of HyVarC tools lend themselves to reduced cost and lead-time, as well as increased tool flexibility. Cost and lead-time are always key drivers in the tooling market, but one of the biggest customer impacts that we’ve seen is the flexibility and re-configurability. A major factor in aircraft development cycles is the tooling lead-time and the impact of surface changes on that tooling. For some programmes, ordering an entirely new tool is either too expensive or takes too much time, which can hamper the process in many ways.

Engineers may not be able to make changes they want to the aircraft lofts, which could improve performance or decrease build cost. Alternatively, programmes may reduce the number of development iterations, spending more time on up-front design before trying physical parts. With the flexibility of HyVarC, there is less impact to cost and schedule for making a change to the aircraft design. From a manufacturing standpoint, one of the unique things about HyVarC is how it flows through our shop. It draws on resources from both the metal fabrication team and the composite shop. This allows us to distribute capacity more evenly and keep the build moving quickly. Like all things in the tooling market, there is no ‘silver bullet’ solution, but HyVarC gives us another high-quality option to offer for composite layup tooling.

Q) Are there any plans to continue the development of HyVarC by going down to thinner gauges, say 3mm?

As part of the product development process, we have several ongoing projects that will continue to add features and improve HyVarC tools, one of which is investigating thinner gauges of Invar for the backup structure and facesheet. There are some inherent challenges to that process, including metal forming techniques and design changes to improve tool stiffness. Our goal is to push the envelope, not just HyVarC, but all our tooling offerings to best respond to our customers’ needs. We’ve also seen interest in self-heated tooling and separable mandrels, which will add another layer of complexity and flexibility to how these tools can be used. Stay tuned for 2020 - we have plenty of exciting developments on the way.

Q) What are the types of performance demands placed on your company by today’s customers?

Price, quality, and delivery are always crucial and those are the starting point to any successful customer relationship. Beyond that, every company and programme values things a little differently. That’s why it’s so important that our key account managers, technical support team, and programme managers get to know the customer and identify what’s important to them. For some programmes, providing a really sound technical solution and clearly explaining that to all levels involved is crucial in winning work and maintaining a good relationship. For others, it’s about responsiveness and execution; get it done right and get it done quickly. At the end of the day, we want to provide the right solution at the right cost in the right amount of time, and we’ll work as close as we can with the customer to make it happen.

Q) Tell me more about your recent partnership with Thermwood and the purchase of a LSAM additive manufacturing machine?

As we’ve studied the available additive technologies over the last few years, we’ve continued to watch the growing maturity of large-scale additive machines like Thermwood’s LSAM. The print speeds, material availability, and finished product quality have improved and now provide more flexibility moving forward. In particular, we’ve been really impressed with the Thermwood team, the LSAM machine that they build, and their knowledge of the dynamics of large-scale printing. At the end of the day, it comes down to our desire to push the industry forward and remain the market leader in innovative tooling solutions. Adding a 10ft x 40ft LSAM expands our in-house capabilities and opens up new avenues for customer collaboration moving forward. It gives Ascent access to an entirely new method of manufacturing tools, will improve our fabrication speeds, and open up new avenues of design flexibility. There’s an immediate opportunity to speed up the fabrication of room temperature tooling, such as trim tools and holding fixtures, before moving into higher temperature layup moulds.

As I mentioned above, a key driver of any new aircraft programme, like any new product, is how long it takes to bring new ideas to life. And due to the scale and precision requirements of the aerospace industry, that development cycle is often controlled by the tooling and how quickly it can be fabricated. Although prototyping and speedy development have always been valuable applications of additive manufacturing, the scale of aircraft has traditionally made it impractical or even impossible to really leverage the full potential of AM.

With the LSAM, Ascent will be able to provide a wide range of tooling, from moulds to trim fixtures to prototypes, at a very rapid pace and help our customers shorten the development cycle. We can start to see a future in commercial aircraft where the first five parts - and several iterations of those designs - are fabricated on LSAM moulds; the next 100+ parts are made on a HyVarC tool, which still allows for some design flexibility; and finally create a full Invar tool for the 1,000+ parts needed in high-rate production.

www.ascentaerospace.com