Airbus UK

Pladrest were asked to supply a conditioning oven for aluminium wing stringers as part of the repatriation of Stringer manufacturing at Airbus UK wing production site at Broughton in North Wales.

The 24 metre long oven is designed to accommodate the stringer sections up to 22 metres long including those used on the new A380 super jumbo.

The oven is split into six zones with high volume air re-circulating fans and heaters. The oven has to achieve a temperature uniformity of ± 3 C anywhere within the working area and this is achieved by use of a specially designed air distribution system.

The oven is controlled by a plc and a PC based operator work station is used for operation and monitoring of the oven. All cure cycles are monitored and recorded to unique files, and the system is fully integrated with Airbus site systems for downloading of batch heat treatment data, ensuring full traceability throughout the process. A backup pc is provided to automatically take over the oven control should the main PC fail.

During each cycle up to 30 roaming thermocouples are attached to the components inside the oven to give full data capture and verification of heat treatment conditions.