Studying control strategies for dimensional precision in aerospace parts machining

Dimensional instability in machined aerospace parts is a complex engineering problem which is contributed by many factors. Mainly, the machining stresses developed during the part’s material cutting, cause dimensional imperfections. The complex interaction of mechanical, thermal, and metallurgical transformations makes it difficult to establish the exact reasoning of part’s desired dimensional instability. The research work presented here deals with the investigations of machining stresses and subsequent dimensional deformations in aerospace grade aluminum alloys. A commercial finite analysis code is applied to simulate the residual stresses and machining process. The stress profiles developed from the numerical simulations are compared with standard curves. The actual machined part’s deviations are measured on a CMM (coordinate measuring machine). The experimental and numerical results are found consistent with each other. This validates the control strategies adopted to simulate the machining stresses and resultant deformations.