Mannings Chosen For Eurofighter Editorial

Mannings Thermal & Environmental Engineers Limited of Southport, England have become part of Europe’s biggest military aircraft programme by supplying a heating system to be used during production of the new Eurofighter.

The new equipment is for BAE Systems Limited of Salmesbury, Lancashire and is used to heat a specially designed tool for the manufacture of the engine bay doors of the fighter. The heating is required for the cast aluminium tool to achieve rapid curing of the special adhesive compound used to bond together the two layers of the door.

The top surface of the tool is formed to the same contour as the outside surface of the aircraft. By positioning the door on the tool and applying a vacuum, the desired shape is achieved. The heating system, which is an integral part of the tool, reduces the cure time of the adhesive from around 3 days to approximately six hours.

Mannings worked closely with the toolmaker during the project and had to satisfy strict criteria. The tool is approximately two tonnes in weight and needed to be uniformly heated to a temperature of 50 degrees centigrade. To meet the requirements of the application Mannings provided specially designed low voltage heating elements, which had to be inserted in machined recessed inside the tool itself. Temperature control is carried out in six heating zones and probes accurately measure the temperature of each zone. Bob Cross who is Development Engineer for BAE systems said “because of our tight production schedule it is necessary to complete this operation as quickly as possible and the improved curing time which we have achieved using the Mannings heating system has helped our overall schedule”.

Mannings have supplied systems for similar applications in the past and have been able to reduce production times for numerous processes by specially designed heating systems. Les Oliver who is Manager of Industrial Heating at Mannings said, “we’re very proud to have been chosen for this project. There is considerable expertise and experience available within our company and we’re confident that we can solve any heating problem by accurate assessment and careful design, often in collaboration with the customer”.