It was the first composite structures manufacturing company to gain approval for the manufacture of composite components for use in aircraft of all the 28 countries which belong to the Joint Aviation Authority. Currently, the Brookhouse companies are heavily involved in two major sectors of the Typhoon project. Brookhouse Patterns has been awarded the contract to supply the tooling for all the carbon fibre composite (CFC) components to be used on the new aircraft, while Brookhouse SPD Tool Company will supply workshop, test and ground equipment (W.S.T.G.E.) to assist in its manufacture and assembly. The CFC contract will involve the design and manufacture of some 800 mould tools, holding fixtures and performers over the next two years, to allow British Aerospace to meet its projected first production flight date of September 2001.
Brookhouse has also introduced coordinate measuring machine support for the machining facility to provide surface quality checking. The most recent investment has been in a Leica 3D laser tracking CMM system. Although the investment was made primarily to comply with the rigorous specifications of the work Brookhouse is carrying out for the Typhoon project, the system will also find application in other areas of the company’s operations. The new Leica LTD500 tracking system is a high accuracy, tracking laser interferometer, incorporating a high precision, absolute distance meter. Threedimensional measurements are taken at the rate of up to 1000 per second and converted, encoded, stored and displayed on an integral PC. Hard copy reports can be generated and data can be exported to other Windows 95 compatible applications. As with all interferometry based measuring equipment, measurements are made of changes in the distance between two reference points, in this case between a reflector and a measuring head. However, the built-in, infrared absolute distance meter allows measurement to be recommenced almost immediately in the event of the beam being broken, which saves considerable time when measuring large complex objects, such as mould tools. In addition, by using an existing file of reference coordinates, sequential point measurement of, say, a tooling jig with fixed reflector targets can be achieved. A sophisticated software algorithm enables the operator to make a quick and approximate manual measurement of the first three points and the remaining points in the file are then automatically measured and their coordinates calculated. The new laser tracking system has a working volume of 70x35x12m and is totally portable, being supplied with its own trailer. It can be transported within Brookhouse operating sites in Darwen and Tameside and then located at the actual component to be measured rather than being situated in a central, air conditioned measuring facility Consequently, the system will be used to check the precise alignment of large assembly jigs at the Brookhouse SPO Tool Company in Tameside, to provide highly accurate measurement of 3D surfaces of complex geometry moulding tools and composite components using best fit technology at Brookhouse in Darwen and to carry out capability checks on CNC machines.
