INSPIRATION THROUGH INNOVATION 2019: THE AEROSPACE EVENT
Experience Innovation through innovation as the aerospace event for the metal cutting industry.INSPIRATION THROUGH INNOVATION 2019 PUTS COLLABORATION AT THE HEART OF INNOVATION
Seco’s annual and ever-popular ‘Inspiration through Innovation’ advanced manufacturing best-practice event took place on Wednesday, 9th and Thursday, 10th October at our Technology Centre in Alcester. This year, the event was focused exclusively on the aerospace segment.
Inspiration through Innovation has become a ‘must attend’ event for component manufacturers looking to find out more about the latest innovative technology solutions in the market. And, true to the event's six-year history, this year's event continued to highlight and demonstrate the power of positive partnerships and the benefits available to component manufacturers from adopting collaborative approaches to problem solving.
With our technical partners, we created an inspiring and practical, customer-focused event that demonstrated to visitors the improvements in productivity and performance that can be achieved by integrating teams, embracing technology and aiming high.
The event featured:
- best-in-class aerospace-related demonstrations of blisks, discs, casing features and more
- industry-leading seminars that covered everything from Additive Manufacturing to Industry 4.0
- Great networking and B2B opportunities
More than 740 people joined us for Inspiration through Innovation over the two days.
WHY DID WE FOCUS ON AEROSPACE MANUFACTURING?
The global aerospace sector continues to grow due to increasing demand from both commercial and defence sectors. Current defence growth is driven by governments responding to current geo-political uncertainties. Growth in the commercial aerospace industry is driven by the increasing number of passengers, primarily due to GDP growth in emerging markets and falling ticket prices, which increases accessibility.
Aircraft production backlogs stand at around 14,000 orders. The result is the industry’s pursuit of new manufacturing technologies to increase production speeds and reduce process costs. In addition, growing environmental concerns and the service provider demanding more fuel-efficient aircraft is further increasing the need for new and innovative materials, techniques and technologies in order to meet these current and future requirements.
From a manufacturing perspective, the aerospace segment is characterised by constant innovation - specifically in the use and application of new materials, the design and implementation of challenging machining (and manufacturing) processes and the ingenious ways the industry improves quality and safety and reduces costs and environmental impacts. Aerospace is a global industry with high growth potential that relies on innovation.
MACHINING DEMONSTRATIONS, INDUSTRY SEMINARS AND NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES
At Inspiration through Innovation 2019, we had 30 technical partners taking part in nine aerospace machining demonstrations. These demonstrations involved the machining of actual customer components or replications of specific machined details and features from real customer parts:
- Aluminium aircraft hinge
- Inconel aero-engine disc
- A350 fuel connector
- Titanium wing pylon
- Titanium blisk
- Composite passenger aircraft seat
- Blade tip repair
- Inconel combustion chamber
- Titanium and Inconel blisk segments
The parts machined all came with their challenges. Made from difficult-to-machine materials, including Inconel, Titanium, Heat Resistant Super Alloys (HRSAs) and Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic (CFRP), they were machined to meet high accuracy and surface finish requirements. The machining demonstrations were designed by, and involve, a number of technical partners (i.e. machine tool builders, CAD/CAM specialists, and tooling, work-holding, cutting fluid, metrology and automation suppliers). They demonstrated the significant productivity gains and cost-efficiencies that can be achieved through working in collaboration.
Seven leading-edge industry seminars took place during the two-day event - each one delivered by a recognised industry-expert and each focused on a relevant aerospace manufacturing and/or machining issue.
- Preparing for industryʹs increasing blisk demand - Tom McCready, AMRC
- Industry 4.0 and metrology – Smart strategy - Guy Brown, Renishaw
- Global maching production economics - Patrick De Vos, Seco
- Innovation Hub – The integration of expertise and technology - Jon Shipley, Seco
- Driving industrialisation of additive manufacturing - Phil Hatherley, Materials Solutions Ltd – a Siemens business
- Challenges and advances in nickel-based superalloy technology - Dr. Mark Hardy, Rolls-Royce
- Machinability considerations in high-strength heat-resistant superalloys - Patrick De Vos, Seco
The emphasis of the event reflects Seco’s ethos that collaborative approaches to problem-solving and sharing best practice with customers deliver truly inspirational and innovative solutions.
Follow our LinkedIn page for updates about the event: www.linkedin.com/company/secotoolsuk
