As we all know, the US military's F-14 "Tomcat" carrier-based fighter is a classic combat aircraft. Its biggest feature is the design of variable swept wings.
It can be called a miracle in the 1970s, because the variable swept wing is not only complicated, but also requires very high structural strength of the entire aircraft body. If there is a slight difference, the wing will easily cause damage due to the aerodynamic resistance and load during the change process. The structure of the fuselage is fatigued and the overall life of the fuselage is reduced; in severe cases, it can easily lead to the disintegration of the fuselage and cause accidents.
Because of this, despite the popularity of variable-sweep-wing fighter jets, there are only two and a half countries in the world that can actually produce and apply them on a large scale. Two of them are the United States and the Soviet Union, and the other half is Europe.
Needless to say, in the United States and the Soviet Union, a whole generation of aircraft models from fighters to bombers all use variable swept wings. The reason why Europe says it is half of them is because except for the "Tornado" fighter, there is no full series of variable swept wings. Sweeping wing fleet.
The reason for this is very simple. Europe lacks large-scale electron beam welding machines and cannot manufacture larger central wing boxes that can withstand the aerodynamic structure of variable sweep wings.
Yes, the key to solving the problem of variable sweep wing body structure is the central wing box with a very strong overall structure.
Under normal circumstances, to maintain the integrity of the overall structure, it is safest to apply the overall casting process. However, in the field of aircraft manufacturing, especially the manufacturing of advanced aircraft, every inch of space is a precious asset for designers, perhaps a joint. , or a certain device needs to be installed, or a controller needs to be connected to a certain part. In short, it is impossible for designers to ignore the huge central wing box as a blank space.
This brings up a problem, that is, how to retain the required internal structure and complex cabins to the greatest extent during casting.
In addition, all parts of the aircraft must be thin and light. Take the central wing box skin of the F-14 as an example. The thinnest titanium alloy skin is only 0.025mm, which is only equivalent to the thickness of a piece of A4 paper.
Integral casting is worry-free, but it cannot be made to such an extreme level. It will inevitably require complex machining in the later stage. However, the integral casting has been formed. Not only is it very difficult to machine it again, it will also have the same impact on the overall structure. Can not be ignored.
Therefore, the best way is to manufacture it in sections, and then use welding to splice them into a whole to form an integrated overall structure.
Electronic welding plays an extremely critical role in this.
Because the thermal selection of the electronic welding process has good stability and is easy to control; it has concentrated energy, fast speed, small welding deformation, and good weld quality. All of the above, combined with the vacuum environment, can improve the utilization rate of materials, indirectly reduce the weight of the overall structure, and increase the number of components. It is a rare precision welding process in the aerospace field to improve the integrity and strength.
Let¡¯s take the F-14 as an example. Its central wing box is 7 meters long and 0.9 meters wide. The entire structure is composed of 53 titanium alloy parts. Together, there are a total of 70 welds. They are all manufactured using electron beam welding processes. The welding thickness is 12 to 57.2 mm, and the total length of all welds is 55 meters.
Needless to say, as for the effect, the overall structure of the central wing box of the F-14 using the electron beam welding process is not only reduced by 273 kilograms compared to the traditional welding process, but the overall strength is also very excellent. This has been the case since the subsequent F-14 accident. It can be seen that as long as it is not a particularly serious air accident, the central wing box of the F-14 rarely breaks as a whole.
Even in some seemingly serious accidents, the central wing box part has remained intact. After recycling, it can be used as a spare part with a little processing. This shows how excellent the overall central wing box of the F-14 is.
Now the ej9 electron beam welding machine that produces the f-14 center wing box is placed in front of Zhuang Jianye and others. It is absolutely nonsense to say that they are not excited, because this means what troubles the 5-meter-long, 2.3-meter-wide advanced light transport platform. The 0.8-meter-high overall central wing box is finally available.
You must know that the ej9 electron beam welding machine that can produce the 7-meter-long and 0.9-meter-wide central wing box component of the F-14 has a length of 7.5 meters, a width of 2.8 meters, a height of 2.5 meters, and a space area of ??53.2 square meters. rice.
Equipped with two types of electron beam welding guns, 45kw and 110kw, the welding mechanism is mobile automatic welding. The electron beam welding gun is set on a gantry hanger in the vacuum chamber and can move along the three directions of length, width and height.
It belongs to the advanced level in the mid-1970s.
Yes, even if it is the same model as the F-14, it is still not the most cutting-edge production equipment in advanced developed countries. After all, it is now the late 1980s. The electron beam welding vacuum chambers in Western developed countries have reached hundreds of square meters. The electron beam welding guns It has been replaced by flexible robotic arms. CNC programs written with high-precision industrial control software have already broken through simple movements in the three directions of length, width and height.
Similar to complex circular motion, multi-angle motion, and rotary motion.??Can be easily achieved.
Among them, the brand-new vacuum welding equipment built by the United States for the YF-22 is even more dynamic. Not only can the electron beam welding gun realize multi-angle movement, but it can also be accurately adjusted according to different parts and different thicknesses of components according to the CNC program. The degree of automation Higher, more integrated, far ahead of the world.
The Soviet Union went to the other extreme, that is, all kinds of large machines. In order to produce the Tu-160 strategic bomber and the "Buran" space shuttle, the Soviet Union manufactured a very large electron beam welding machine with a vacuum chamber volume of 673 square meters in the Ural Mountains regardless of cost. machine; later, I felt it was not enough and built a 1,300-square-meter extra-large electron beam welding machine, known as the world's largest.
As a result, they were built, but when they were used, they found that these two big babies were super power-hungry, especially the 1,300-square-meter extra-large electron beam welding machine at the back. As long as they were used, 80% of the entire Ural military production base It was like sucking a vacuum, all the power was sucked away by this thing.
Therefore, the Soviets must coordinate with other departments every time they use it, and they can only use it during the low peak period of electricity consumption from 2 to 4 in the morning. Otherwise, as soon as this product is turned on, the entire Ural will have a power outage.
Of course Ascendas Group will not build such a big thing, because it would be equivalent to the electricity of the entire southwest to supply such a thing, which is not cost-effective.
Of course, the current ej9 electron beam welding machine is indeed a bit small, and the welding range is still somewhat limited, but Zhuang Jianye is not very worried, because Peng Chuan and Wei Guangping have already led their respective teams to seriously study this key equipment. With their accomplishments in automatic assembly, flexible tooling, electrochemical drilling, and pulsating production lines, so-called key equipment such as the ej9 electron beam welding machine is, in some respects, just a layer of window paper.
Peng Chuan didn't even bother to knock on the door. He asked Xiao Zheng next door and opened the door directly. Then he slapped the drawing in his hand on the desk. Zhuang Jianye unfolded it and took a look. Sure enough, the aviation robot with a double gun head design was used. The engine-specific upgraded version of the ej9 electron beam welding machine is out.
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