Contact: Maridith Geuder
The same machine used to cut and polish mirrors for the Strategic Defense Initiative is helping a Mississippi State research laboratory aid a state industry.
The university's Raspet Flight Research Laboratory is using a massive computer-controlled mill and polisher to develop techniques that can reduce the time it takes to make the fuselage mold for a single engine plane.
The work is being done in conjunction with Gulfport-based Seemann Composites, a company that invented and licensed a molding process that has been used primarily for manufacturing ship hulls, said George Bennett, director of aerospace engineering department lab.
"The company wants to see if the process can be adapted for the aviation industry," he said. Called the Seemann Composite Resin Infusion Molding Process--SCRIMP--it may provide a way to reduce manufacturing time and costs for airplanes, he added.
The Raspet Lab recently completed a 10-year project with Honda Motor Co. to build a prototype all-composite business jet. Based at Starkville's Bryan Field, the facility has been the site of composite-aircraft research for more than 30 years.
Rani Sullivan, the Mississippi State research engineer who directs the Seemann project with Bennett, said a goal of the research is to produce a fuselage half in a single step using the SCRIMP process.
Using the Swedish-made machine, the research team is constructing half of a fuselage mold by fabricating a SCRIMP process-laminate over a frame. The laminate then is carved to highly precise dimensions.
The mill and polisher, formerly used to make optical mirrors for the SDI, is programmed to make thousands of cuts. Normally, the process would begin with a solid block of material that is carved the desired shape.
"However, with large structures such as a full-scale fuselage mold, the cost of the material would be excessive," Sullivan said. "The process of using a near-net shape minimizes the cost of the material and significantly reduces the machining time."
First proposed by President Reagan, the SDI--often dubbed "Star Wars"--was an attempt by the U.S. to develop a defense system against incoming nuclear missiles.
The Seemann research is done under the auspices of a NASA-funded Small Business Innovation Research program designed to foster technological innovation in American small businesses.
A long-term goal for the research lab is "to make the best molds in the world for the general aviation industry," said Bennett. "We're also using the equipment as a way to teach students advanced automation."
Graduate student Rob Hubbard of Huntsville, Ala., said his participation on the project "is teaching me to use a computer based numerically controlled machine inside and out." The project is a focus of his master's thesis, and the experience will contribute to his goal of working for a major aerospace manufacturer, he said.
Sullivan said Travis Bailey, a Cullman, Ala. graduate student, played a key role in the computer-assisted design portion of the project, and the lab's composite craftsman Jim Schrock became the lead operator for the Arboga milling machine.
"A project of this magnitude requires a team effort," she said. "Members of the electronics group, the machine shop, and the aircraft support group were instrumental in successfully completing this effort."