AIC Group is refurbishing a 3m x 10m autoclave for a global North American aerospace company. AIC will refit the autoclave with various features, including its autoclave management and control system (AMCS).
The aerospace company bought the autoclave for its South American jet building facility, which employs 1500 people.
The company plans to transport the autoclave to South America from Southampton, UK, by boat, where it will complete its journey by road, offloaded and positioned into a pit. The aerospace facility is 6,500 ft above sea level, which makes gas burning more difficult because of the lack of oxygen. This means that AIC recalculated the heating function of the autoclave, allowing more air to be pushed through the autoclave.
Increased productivity
Before AIC’s engineers started the refurbishment process, they investigated the autoclave’s certification. The 3m x 10m autoclave will be re-painted and fitted with 42 more vacuum zones, a new motor and a new radiator.
‘Autoclaves are essential for manufacturers in the aerospace industry,’ said Jamie Hardiment, AIC’s head of business development. ‘We have taken a standard use autoclave and made it as good as new by upgrading many of the features and adding our AMCS, which will increase productivity with shorter curing times, enabling our customer to more efficiently produce aerospace parts.’
This story is reprinted from material from AIC, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
