Patent Description:
<FIG> shows a known nacelle lip skin <NUM> as described in <CIT>. The lip skin <NUM> has roughly a shape of a half torus, with an outside convex surface, and an inner concave surface. In this patent, the lip skin is formed by four noselip segments <NUM>, each segment including a spanwise axis <NUM> about which the noselip segment skin curves in a chordwise direction. In addition, the lip skin <NUM> and noselip segment <NUM> includes a chordwise central axis <NUM>, about which the lip skin / noselip segment curve in a spanwise direction. In <FIG>, the chordwise axis <NUM> coincides with a central longitudinal axis of an associated aircraft engine, and the center of the engine's inlet.

To manufacture the lip skin, the lip skin designer defines the dimensions and tolerances in an 2D engineering drawing, or a 3D nominal CAD file, comprising the nominal dimensions and associated tolerances, that is to say the allowable variations for each nominal dimension. Tolerances on lip skin shape are very demanding since they are typically less than <NUM>, and tolerances on thickness are typically less than <NUM>,<NUM>.

A major problem in producing lip skins is to obtain large pieces from sheet metal while ensuring the dimensions and tolerances are met. A manufacturing process including sheet metal deformation at room temperature require use of several presses and tooling with numerous deformation steps, leading to few repeatable dimensions. A manufacturing process including hot forming requires subsequent cooling steps and heat treatments, as the cooling steps deform the hot formed part in several directions.

With known techniques it is difficult to manufacture the lip skin with sufficient repeatability and very fine accuracy. Accuracy and repeatability are therefore important bottlenecks in producing lip skins using conventional techniques.

The object of the invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a lip skin, which at least partially eliminates the above-mentioned drawbacks of the known manufacturing techniques. More particularly, it is an object of the invention to provide a method wherein the accuracy and repeatability are improved over known manufacturing techniques.

To this end, the invention provides a method for manufacturing an inlet lip skin part according to a nominal definition of the inlet lip skin part, the nominal definition comprising dimensions of the lipskin and associated tolerances, the method comprising the steps of:.

According to one embodiment, in a first step a) a blank is obtained from a metal sheet, for instance aluminum or titanium sheet. Several metal sheets may be welded together to form a larger metal sheet and may be then cut such as to provide the blank so as to form a circular blank with a circular hole. In another embodiment, at least one metal sheet may be cut so as to provide at least two annular segments and may be then welded together to form the blank so as to form a circular blank with a circular hole. In another embodiment, one metal sheet may be cut so as to provide an annular segment.

The blank may be manufactured so as to provide gripping means for handling and / or maintaining the blank and / or the intermediate part and / or the semi-machined part during the deforming and / or the machining step. Such means can be at least one lug provided at a periphery of the blank, an internal headband provided at an internal periphery of the blank, or an external heat band provided at an external periphery of the blank. In one embodiment, at least one datum may be provided on at least one headband and / or on the semi-machined part.

In a next step b) the blank is deformed into an intermediate shape of the lip skin part. The intermediate part does not yet have the final dimensions and shape of the lip skin, but has the required curvatures and thicknesses allowing subsequent machining.

The deformation is a mechanical deformation step, for example with a press at room temperature, or hot forming deformation at a temperature between <NUM> and <NUM>, or spin forming deformation, or explosive deformation or a combination thereof, in one step or several sub-steps. According to the chosen forming process, intermediate heat treatment might be required to release the stresses induced by the manufacturing process before machining.

In step c) the intermediate shape is machined to the final shape according to the nominal definition. Machining in this description is understood to mean that a material is cut to a desired final shape and size by a controlled material-removal process, such as turning or milling, using machine tools.

Advanced machining techniques include precision CNC machining, electrical discharge machining (EDM), electro-chemical machining (ECM), laser cutting, or water jet cutting to shape metal workpieces. The use of the appropriate technique depends on the lip skin dimension tolerances to be met, as each tool has its own manufacturing tolerance.

The nominal definition of the inlet lip skin part may be a nominal CAD file. Machining a first surface of the intermediate part may comprise acquiring dimensions of the intermediate part, building a first CAD file containing dimensions of the intermediate parts and best-fit the nominal CAD file in the first CAD file.

In one embodiment, acquisition of the dimensions of the intermediate part can be performed with an optical measurement device scanning the intermediate part, or with ultrasound probes sensing some points on the intermediate part.

In one embodiment, machining the second surface of the semi-machined part may comprise acquiring dimensions of the semi-machined part and building a second CAD file containing dimensions of the semi-machined part.

In one embodiment, acquiring dimensions of the semi-machined part may comprise acquiring a thickness of the semi-machined part, such thickness being measured on the semi-machined part with ultrasound probes.

In one embodiment, the first surface is an outside convex surface, and the second surface is an inside concave surface.

In one embodiment, the first surface is an inside concave surface, and the second surface is an outside convex surface.

The combination of a first deformation step with a two steps machining reduces the accuracy and repeatability problems of the prior art. After the machining, the accuracy is so good that no further corrective surface treatments or dimensional rectification operations on the lip skin are necessary. This further contributes to the repeatability of the process with the same product accuracy. The avoidance of such additional steps contributes to a reduction in production costs and reduces manufacturing time.

The invention is described below with reference to the drawings, in which:.

<FIG> shows the manufacturing process of an inlet lip skin with preferred steps in bold lines and optional steps in dashed lines. In step <NUM>, an aluminum alloy sheet metal is provided, for instance a <NUM> aluminum alloy sheet metal.

Typically, the sheet metal must have a minimum thickness as specified in the lip skin nominal definition, such as a 2D engineering drawing or a nominal CAD file, plus a minimum thickness to provide enough material for subsequent machining. For instance, a single Al-<NUM> sheet must have a nominal thickness from about <NUM> to <NUM> and minimum dimensions of <NUM> by <NUM> in order to manufacture a lip skin having an average thickness of <NUM> and a maximum diameter of <NUM>. According to the final dimension of the lip skin or the availability of the metal sheets, the sheet metal may be supplied in one piece or may be formed by welding several smaller metal sheets to form a larger sheet of the desired dimensions.

In step <NUM>, at least one sheet metal is cut into a blank having for instance an annular shape with a hole in the center. The blank shape does not necessarily have to be circular and symmetrical, it can be elliptic.

In an optional further step <NUM>, the blank may be cut into two, three, four or more segments which can be later welded together to form the lip skin <NUM>. In this case, the blank that will be processed in the next steps is a blank segment, the intermediate part is an intermediate segment, and the semi-machined part is a semi-machined segment.

The blank is then deformed in one or more deformation steps <NUM> into an intermediate part <NUM>. If necessary, heat treatments are performed between the forming steps.

The deformation can be performed by cold forming, for instance in one or more dies with several tooling with different shapes, by hot forming, for instance in a closed die with an upper and a lower die, after the blank <NUM> and tooling have been heated and transferred into a closed die, by explosive forming, by spin forming, or by a combination of these techniques.

After deformation, in optional step <NUM>, the intermediate part <NUM> can be heat treated, i.e. solution annealed and/or quenched to relieve stresses induced by the deformation.

In a further optional step <NUM>, the intermediate part <NUM> may be submitted to an ageing to obtain final mechanical performances.

Advantageously, the blank can be gripped during deformation on lugs or the outer periphery of the blank and / or the inner periphery, to allow the deformation of the annular portion in a half-torus shape. The peripheries stay planar during the deformation and form headbands <NUM>, <NUM>.

At least one marking can be performed during the blank manufacturing step or the deformation step to create at least one datum <NUM>, that will be used in the subsequent machining step, for aligning the intermediate lip skin or the semi-machined lip skin, as it will be detailed thereafter. The datum <NUM> may be formed by one or several holes, slits, dots, lines.

After deformation and optional steps, the intermediate part <NUM> has the shape shown in <FIG>. In <FIG>, the intermediate part <NUM> has an internal headband <NUM> at the internal periphery of the deformed annular portion, an external headband <NUM> at the external periphery of the deformed annular portion, and one datum <NUM> is provided on the internal headband <NUM>.

In step <NUM>, the intermediate part <NUM> is machined into a lip skin <NUM> having the final desired shape and dimensions, meeting the requirement of the definition.

The lip skin <NUM> undergoes final operations <NUM> such as cosmetic polishing, dimension inspection, cosmetic inspection, laboratory tests and surface treatments before shipping <NUM>.

<FIG> shows in more details the machining step <NUM>, and <FIG> shows a system used to perform such step.

Step <NUM> is mainly divided into two sub-steps:.

In step <NUM>, the nominal definition of the inlet lip skin <NUM> is provided, preferentially as a nominal CAD file <NUM> defining the values in a cartesian system (X, Y, Z) of several thousands of points, with associated tolerances of the lip skin. The nominal CAD file <NUM> defines mainly two surfaces, a nominal outside convex surface and a nominal inside concave surface, and a nominal thickness between those two surfaces. The tolerances are values in the cartesian system (X, Y, Z) of the points lying in one surface. Typically, a tolerance interval is a range of acceptable dimensions defined by a minimum value and a maximum value in the cartesian system (X, Y, Z), the nominal dimension of a point lying in the tolerance interval. The definition contains also at least one datum to allow alignment of the intermediate manufactured parts.

In step <NUM>, the dimensions of the intermediate part <NUM> - either in the shape of an annular part or in the shape of an annular segment part - are acquired by acquisition means <NUM>. The acquisition means may be an optical measurement device scanning the overall intermediate part <NUM>, or ultrasound probes, sensing some points on the intermediate part <NUM>, either on the outside surface, either on the inside surface, or both.

The acquisition means <NUM> is in data communication with a data processor <NUM>. The data processor is remotely located on a computer or integrated in the CNC machine and is able to build CAD files using the measured raw data. The data processor <NUM> builds a first CAD file <NUM> corresponding to the intermediate part <NUM> from the measured raw data. The data processor includes of course a memory for storing the raw data, CAD files, generated data, instruction sets, algorithms, codes, etc. used for and generated during the manufacturing process.

It has to be noted that steps <NUM> and <NUM> are not necessary performed one after the other. Step <NUM> can be performed before, or in parallel, to step <NUM>.

In step <NUM>, a "Best fit" step of the first CAD file <NUM> with the nominal CAD file <NUM> is carried out by the data processor <NUM>. Best fit is a virtual operation aiming to align position of the first CAD file <NUM> with the nominal CAD file <NUM> so that:.

To achieve the best-fit between both parts, a best-fit algorithm <NUM> determines a transformation rule for rigid body transformation consisting in three deflections, and possibly one to three rotations.

In order to position the nominal CAD file of the lip skin within the first CAD file, the intermediate part <NUM> preferentially includes at least one datum <NUM> (<FIG>), formed for instance during or after the deformation of the blank.

Once the datums of the nominal CAD file and the first CAD file are aligned, and the thickness at any point between both files is more than a given minimum thickness defined for this point, the nominal CAD file <NUM> of the lip skin is "best-fitted". In step <NUM>, the position in the cartesian system (X, Y, Z) of the nominal CAD file within the first CDA file is determined and sent to a CNC machine <NUM>.

The intermediate part is inserted in the CNC machine <NUM>, preferentially on a tool having the shape of a half-torus onto which the intermediate part can be put. The CNC machine contains a first machining path <NUM> for machining the outside surface of the lipskin. This machining path is defined by a tool path software <NUM> that generates codes for numerical controlled machines. The first machining path is based on the nominal CAD file and is used to machine any intermediate part produced in the manufacturing process of lip skins having the same nominal definition. The first machining path is independent of the real dimensions of the intermediate part <NUM>.

It has to be noted that the intermediate part may be inserted in the CNC machine in step <NUM> if this CNC machine comprises the acquisition means <NUM>.

In step <NUM>, the CNC machine machines the outside convex surface of the intermediate part <NUM> into a finished surface with dimensions identical to the nominal dimensions of the outside convex surface, within the allowed tolerances permitted by the nominal CAD file of the lip skin, according to the pre-defined machining path <NUM>. At the end of step <NUM>, a semi-machined part <NUM> is obtained. During this step, one or both headbands may be cut. If a headband containing a datum is removed, one or more new datums can be made on the intermediate part during or after the machining step for positioning the semi-machined part within the CNC machine for the subsequent machining step. The new datum may be a hole or a visual marking, such as a scratch.

In step <NUM>, the dimensions of the semi-machined part <NUM> are acquired. The same measuring device <NUM> than the one used for acquiring the dimensions of the intermediate part <NUM> can be used.

In one example, the measurement is done by sensing some points of the finished outside convex surface of the semi-machine part <NUM> and assessing the thicknesses at these same points, for instance using ultrasonic sensors. The set of measurements is used by the data processor <NUM> to create a second CAD file <NUM> containing the real dimensions of the semi-machined part <NUM>.

The semi-machined part <NUM> is inserted in the CNC machine <NUM> and its position is acquired.

In step <NUM>, a second machining path <NUM> for machining the inside concave surface is created by the tool path software <NUM>, based on the second CAD file, that is to say the real dimensions of the semi-machined part <NUM>, the position of the semi-machined part within the CNC machine <NUM>, and the nominal CAD file. This second machining path <NUM> is unique as it is created for each semi-machined part, by taking in account the unique dimensions of the semi-machined part <NUM>.

In step <NUM>, the second machining path <NUM> is sent to the CNC machine <NUM> that machines the inside concave surface of the semi-machined part <NUM> into a finished surface with dimensions identical to the nominal dimensions, within the allowed tolerances permitted by the nominal CAD file <NUM> of the lip skin.

After step <NUM>, the lugs or headbands that might remain are cut and the full machined part forms the complete inlet lip skin <NUM> having the desired final dimensions and shape, meeting the requirements of the nominal CAD file <NUM>, within the required tolerances.

In the embodiment where the process is applied to lip skin segments <NUM>, the segments may be welded together in an additional optional step, for example by means of friction stir welding, or they may be supplied as such to the customer which will assemble them, for instance with fasteners.

While the machining step <NUM> described above begins with machining first the outside convex surface of the intermediate part, it could as well begin with machining first the inside concave surface of the intermediate part. In this case, the first machining path <NUM> would be the one for machining the inside surface and would be used for any intermediate part. The second machining path <NUM> for machining the outside surface would be created for each semi-machined part.

Claim 1:
Method for manufacturing an inlet lip skin part according to a nominal definition of the inlet lip skin part, the nominal definition comprising dimensions of the lip skin and associated tolerances, the method comprising the steps of:
a) obtaining at least one blank from at least one metal sheet;
b) deforming the at least one blank into an intermediate part; characterized by further comprising the steps of:
c) machining a first surface of the intermediate part with a first machining path, said first machining path being independent of the real dimensions of the intermediate part, and being based on the nominal definition of the lip skin part, so as to obtain a semi-machined part, and
d) machining a second surface of the semi-machined part with a second machining path, said second machining path being based on real dimensions of the semi-machined part and the nominal definition of the lip skin part.