Substantial growth in the aircraft parts machining industry will continue with planned
production increases by Boeing and Airbus, as well as the expected expansion of the regional jet
market, including the MRJ of Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation.
Aircraft parts are more difficult to machine than general parts. The reasons include the
workpieces being long with complex curved surfaces, as well as being susceptible to deformation
because of thin walls. There is also the issue of the materials used for the workpieces, namely
titanium, which generates large amounts of heat, and CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced plastic), which
tends to generate burrs and chips during machining.
To improve efficiency in parts machining to cope with the increase in the global production
of aircraft, there is demand for dedicated machine tools that combine a function specialized for the
workpieces to be machined, an automatic workpiece exchange function that enables long-term
continuous machining and manpower-saving and automation functions such as automatic
measurement using sensors.
Our machine tool division has delivered many machine tools to the aircraft parts machining
industry utilizing our advantage as a manufacturer of aircraft parts and the expertise and response
capability we have cultivated in automated machining lines in the automobile industry. This paper
introduces examples of the dedicated machines among machine tools for aircraft parts machining
that our division has developed.
