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Case history at Airbus Varel for Witte Gerätebau
Clamping technology
Clean, fast and without interfering edges

For a high-tech company group like AIRBUS production they should be of top standard right the way down the line. Because of this in the Varel plant, where for instance fuselage parts for the AIRBUS are machined, a Fladder machine is being used for deburring of these large aluminium workpieces. In order to hold these parts optimally on the machine, the manufacturing specialists use a Witte Flip-Pod System, which works with vacuum.

For aircraft builders quality is top priority. Quality thinking is firmly anchored in the heads of the staff at the Airbus plant in Varel, where mostly milled parts are manufactured for the Airbus series A318-A321, A330/A340 and A380. Parts of the Eurofighter also belong to the range as well as fixtures and assembly docks which are supplied to assembly plants. Wilfried Frerichs is master craftsman in large parts manufacturing, where the part sizes start at 1,20m and go up to 7,0m, for instance fuselage parts for the Airbus-Giant A380 coming on to the market in 2006, manufacture of which is just starting. These parts with large surface areas are mostly made of aluminium and milled out of the solid. Before they are sprayed, sharp edges have to be removed, to ensure sufficient spray adhesion.

In addition to skid-grinding methods the Airbus staff have an automatic Fladder 400/GYRO deburring machine at their disposal, with which parts up to 150mm high and 2000mm wide can be machined and the necessary roundness/radius of 0,15 to 0,2mm is achieved. The workpiece length can be varied. It becomes especially profitable all for workpieces with many or large edges, which have sufficient flat surface area underneath to be able to be held with vacuum and the are plenty of those at AIRBUS VAREL.
The „heart“ of a Fladder 400/GYRO is a grinding tip with 6 spindles, on which grinding cylinders are clamped. They comprise of flexible grinding tools like for instance double sided grinding rings which turn in pairs in opposite directions. While workpieces run through the machine, the grinding head rotates and oscillates, so that the tool machines from different angles during deburring process. Parameters can be adjusted, but are coordinated by the machine manufacturer. A change in spindle-turning speed also changes the rotation and a change in feed causes a change in oscillation.