LIGHT ALLOY CASTINGS IN AIRFRAME STRUCTURES
22 June 2004 - Castings Technology International

In December 2003 CTI launched its LACAST project, the aim of which is to encourage and promote the use of Light Alloy Castings (aluminium, magnesium and titanium) in Airframe Structures. A kick-off meeting was held at the Sheffield site, and was well supported by the project participants, comprising casting users, producers and suppliers. Detailed discussions were undertaken to determine the participants' needs, which this three-year project will work towards addressing.

The project aims to increase the use of castings in structural areas of commercial aircraft. A combination of new process developments, together with improvements to existing processes and casting quality, will enable designers of aircraft components to use castings with greater confidence. The work will be supported by statistical proof of process capability.

This will create a number of opportunities: firstly it will enable the casting producer to sell more castings to the aerospace industry and, secondly, the manufacturers of aircraft components will benefit from reduced weight and waste by casting near-to-net-shape and by combining numerous sub-structures into one cast component.

The £696k DTI project, supported by the Aeronautics Research Programme, builds upon the successful 3 year CARAD project previously undertaken by Cti. The project has been planned to develop further the casting process technologies needed to increase the utilisation of cast parts in airframe structures.

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