delapena, a leading name in the honing industry, is making waves in the aerospace sector with their revolutionary Tandem Alignment Honing Tools. These ingenious tools are rewriting the rules of aircraft landing gear maintenance, offering a faster, safer, and more sustainable approach to aircraft repair.
The aerospace sector is increasingly tightening the requirements for components to achieve lighter weight and greater performance from end products – higher power densities, more precise control, tighter sealing, less noise, and vibration.
Traditionally, maintaining the intricate and often difficult-to-reach components of aircraft involved time-consuming and expensive disassembly of key parts like landing gear and engine cylinders. This not only disrupted operations but also drove up maintenance costs significantly.
delapena’ s Tandem Alignment Honing Tools are a gamechanger. These innovative tools allow for In-Situ honing of critical twin bores, eliminating the need for disassembly. This translates to faster turnaround times, reduced costs, enhanced safety through perfect alignment and extended component life, and more sustainable practices through reduced waste.
The tool body is made such that its length matches the centre distance of the two ‘in-line’ bores. One end of the tool is fitted with abrasive stones and the other with nylon guides.
When the tool is inserted into the bores the nylon guides are expanded to pilot the tool in one bore while the honing stones are expanded to increase the diameter of the bore to be honed. When the first bore has been honed to the correct size the tool is removed and inserted from the opposite end so that the nylon guides are piloted in the honed bore while the stones increase the diameter of the second bore. If access is restricted and the tool cannot be inserted from each end of the tandem bore, then the position of the honing stones and nylon guides are reversed in the tool after the first bore has been honed.
The impact of delapena’ s tools extend far beyond mere convenience. They represent a paradigm shift in how aircraft landing gear components are maintained, prioritizing efficiency, safety, and sustainability. As air traffic continues to grow, these tools play a vital role in ensuring the smooth operation and longevity of our global fleet.
delapena’ s Tandem Alignment Honing Tools are a testament to their commitment to innovation, precision, and a deep understanding of the aerospace industry’s needs.
In the realm of precision engineering, where tolerances are measured in microns and surface finishes are paramount, the honing process could be described as prevailing in
accuracy. Among the various honing machines available, the delapena PowerHone EXL is said to be a champion, delivering exceptional performance, versatility, and ease of use.
At the heart of the PowerHone EXL lies a robust design, crafted with heavy-duty
components to ensure high stability and vibration-free operation. This translates to
consummate precision, with honed surfaces achieving mirror-like finishes and
dimensional accuracy exceeding even the most stringent requirements. The
machine’s rigid construction also means it can tackle large and heavy workpieces with confidence, making it ideal for diverse industrial applications.
In manufacturing, close working partnerships between customers and suppliers are worth their weight in gold and that’s certainly the case with Hemel Hempstead-based precision subcontractor Subcon Drilling and honing specialist Delapena who have been working together for many years, developing super abrasive to optimise their honing process. In 2019 however, Subcon Drilling threw down the gauntlet to its longstanding supplier with a specific challenge that included specialist honing super abrasive. Dave Tudor reports.
Through a combination of a delapena SpeedHone Cooper S horizontal honing machine and customised, tuned and tweaked super abrasive honing stones, not to mention extensive trialling, delapena not only managed to hit the 20 minute cycle time target they totally annihilated it, said Dean Edwards, Subcon Drilling.
Lower cost Super abrasive
delapena sintered products strive to offer the highest quality product and service to our customer, a key factor in this is value of the product. To address the high cost of super abrasives we were keen to investigate all the sintering technologies available with the intention of driving the super abrasive manufacturing costs down making it an affordable option compared to standard abrasive.
This has been achieved by investing in the best technology available as well as optimising the process flow in manufacturing using best practice lean principles. Quality, Delivery, Price, and Service targets have all been achieved with customers saving on average 30% against competitors’ products. View our brochure
In recent years Ceramics, Chrome and Carbide have provide a challenge for the honing process due to the increased surface hardness properties of the newer grade carbide abrasive.
To address these harder materials, delapena sintered products state of the art production facility, design, develop and manufacture super abrasive bonds with outstanding results.
Following extensive research and using innovative technology, delapena have developed Chomestone.
| `Honing of Hard Chrome case study` A customer of delapena was using a delapena PowerHone to resize Chrome plating in cylinder using a conventual silicon carbide abrasive. The downside to using conventual abrasive is the abrasive wear quickly and the honing machine needs constant adjustment to maintain size. The customers honing process averaged 60 minutes depending on the depth of the chrome layer. Chromestone developed by delapena sintered products was then introduced and reduced this honing process to 10 minutes. Another advantage that their customer also gained was that traditionally the worn chrome plating was stripped overnight in chemical tanks. Using a rougher Chrome bond abrasive, Chromestone, allowed the cylinder to be honed prior to the plating process in a little under 20 minutes negating the need to chemically strip the cylinder. |
Lower cost Super abrasive
delapena sintered products strive to offer the highest quality product and service to our customer, a key factor in this is value of the product. To address the high cost of super abrasives we were keen to investigate all the sintering technologies available with the intention of driving the super abrasive manufacturing costs down making it an affordable option compared to standard abrasive.
This has been achieved by investing in the best technology available as well as optimising the process flow in manufacturing using best practice lean principles. Quality, Delivery, Price, and Service targets have all been achieved with customers saving on average 30% against competitors’ products.
Find out more, visit www.delapenasintered.co.uk
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