The application of laser equipment has become commonplace, especially the metal laser cutting machine, which has a good performance in processing various metal materials and can quickly and accurately process metal sheet metal into different shapes. The application of this technology in aviation materials has attracted many aviation manufacturing enterprises.

The rotator parts and transmission of the aircraft fuselage are forged from large metal billets. The fuselage also contains some parts made of forged materials, and most of the fuselage is made of aluminum. Generally, 7000 series zinc-based aluminum alloy is used for processing because of its good static strength and fatigue strength. Although 7000 series aluminum materials are very suitable for aviation applications, they are not resistant to high temperature. Rapid heating, such as welding and laser cutting, can cause micro-cracks. Micro-cracks lead to the reduction of fatigue strength. Welding and laser cutting are two kinds of processes that produce thermally induced micro-cracks.

Quality and processing control are crucial. Any process that brings uncertain factors to processing must be controlled or directly eliminated. In the past, laser cutting has brought great challenges to quality control and consistency between different production batches.

In the current laser cutting system, the limitations of these laser cutting in aviation applications have been improved, including the fatigue performance and the reduction of manufacturing process consistency. Now, the laser system has greatly reduced the size of the heat-affected zone (HAZ) and the corresponding micro-cracks. In the process of laser cutting, technicians have been able to control the cutting parameters and use the calculator software to accurately repeat. These technological advances have led people to rethink whether laser cutting is suitable for the production of fuselage structures. The fuselage structure is mainly made of 7000 series aluminum materials.

Fatigue fracture usually occurs at the place where the stress is concentrated, such as the edge of the part, the change of geometric shape, or the joint. The fuselage parts made of sheet metal have many different joint modes, and most fatigue cracks occur at the joint. If the laser is not used to cut the small hole at the joint, the laser is mainly used to cut the edge of the part. For other effects, the most vulnerable connection position can be used to illustrate that the micro-cracks caused by laser cutting are not the main damage position compared with the connection. In this way, we can conclude that if a part is likely to break at the joint, the laser cutting technology will not further damage the fatigue characteristics of the part.

Laser cutting can process parts with consistency faster, which is more efficient than traditional processing. Laser technology is expected to reduce processing time and production costs. For a long time, in the processing of 7000 series aluminum plates, the advantages of lasers have not been brought into play due to the reduction of fatigue performance. Recently, the innovation of laser system has led people to re-evaluate the advantages of laser cutting aviation aluminum. Preliminary tests have shown the potential of laser technology in fuselage processing. Future fuselage systems and existing designs should not exclude the possible application of lasers in this fuselage system because of past experience. We should maintain an open attitude to analyze various situations to determine whether laser technology can bring product benefits.

About HGTECH: HGTECH is the pioneer and leader of laser industrial application in China, and the authoritative provider of global laser processing solutions. We have comprehensively arranged laser intelligent machine, measurement and automation production lines, and smart factory construction to provide overall solutions for intelligent manufacturing.