High-performance tooling for plating operations

Citation

(2007), "High-performance tooling for plating operations", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 79 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2007.12779fad.013

High-performance tooling for plating operations

High-performance tooling for plating operations Elsyca estimates that its CAD/CAE- based tooling design service offers companies involved in coating and plating parts such as high-pressure turbine blades, nozzles and guide vanes, landing gear and hydraulic actuation components reductions of, conservatively, 30 per cent in lead times, 20 per cent in materials and 10 per cent in manpower.

Dr Alan Rose, Aerospace Business Manager with Elsyca comments: “The key to obtaining maximum tooling performance is the ability to be flexible in the design process. However, the optimum tooling set-up for each task is impossible to determine using the traditional route – physical trial and error. The Elsyca technology/software platform enables us to swiftly drive the design and create the exact tooling design/set-up required, bringing tangible business returns to our customers.”

Elsyca's design service is based upon validated computational models of electrochemical processes – the result of more than 25 years of fundamental research – and the application of the technological insight this information has given. This CAD/CAE service brings flexibility to tooling design for the first time, enabling a standard tooling design to be cost effectively tailored to each manufacturer's specific requirements.

When used in MRO coating activities, the new tooling design is reported to have greatly improved the consistency of the end product whilst simultaneously reducing lead times by some three days through taking out time-consuming de-embrittlement steps, halving the grinding required to eradicate coating excesses, and cutting costly raw material consumption by 20 per cent.

In high-end nickel and platinum plating of nozzle guide vanes, which must be achieved to within precise minimum and maximum specifications, Elsyca also claims to demonstrate significant tangible benefits gained. The Company's capability to measure and refine plating bath characteristics, their electrical conductivity, plating efficiency and polarisation behavior, will reportedly improve the consistency and thickness of the plating, minimize materials usage – platinum materials savings of 14 per cent are said to have been achieved – and maximise yield.

Elsyca was founded in 1997 as a commercial company, a spin-off from the VUB (University of Brussels) and the VKI (von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics). Elsyca works with OEM and MRO aero-engine and component customers to understand and optimize their electrochemical processes, resulting in cost-efficiency, higher productivity, improved product quality and ecological gains.

Details available from: Elsyca, Tel:+44 (0) 1837 849114, E-mail: helene@helenecoxpr.co.uk, web site: www.elsyca.com