Aerobloggen

Hello!

It was a while since I last wrote a blog post, and a lot of exciting and fun things have happened since my pen last touched the ink. Among other things, I have, together with method specialists and buyers, visited our vane subcontractors in Karlskron, southern Germany, and in Pau, northern France. For me it was a very rewarding trip where I got to learn more about the vane manufacturing processes and requirements, as well as got to know some of the people who work there more closely.
A part of the graduate program’s soul-purpose is to connect with people within the European industry, a purpose that I surely fulfilled during my week in France and Germany.
As a graduate engineer at GKN Aerospace you often stumble upon the chance to participate or even lead projects involving everything from product and method development, to the very introduction of new products or methods. A few weeks ago, I said yes to participate in a few projects involving AM-initiatives aimed at reducing production costs while increasing the producibility of some of our products.
AM (Additive Manufacturing, or 3D Printing) is currently being hyped to the maximum, and together with the digitalization, AM is consider becoming the very foundation of the third industrial revolution (at least according to the Economist). As with all technologies, AM has an ocean of possibilities, but it also has its limitations.
It is clear that we now begin to approach the very top of the “hype-cycle”, and the question whether this technology will survive tomorrow’s expectations or not, remains unanswered.
I will dedicate my next post to write about the AM-technology’s possibilities, limitations and risks. Until then, I which you a pleasant vacation (If you have one i.e., if not, I’m sorry)

See you later!

Time flies when having fun, and as a young graduate at GKN this is definitely more true than we want it to be! More than ten months have already passed since we stepped through the main gate for the very first time, as newly hatched and very much unexperienced engineers. As time has gone by, we have step by step grown into our professional roles and soon a new adventure is awaiting where we get the chance to spread our wings. In October/November, we will begin six exciting months of international practice!

For that reason I visited Fokker Aerostructures in Papendrecht, the Netherlands, last week where I will spend the forthcoming winter and spring. Papendrecht, which is also the headquarters of our Dutch subsidiary, manufactures fuselage panels to the Gulfstream 650, which is one of the world’s most popular business jets. At present, a majority of the component manufacturing for these panels are performed by Turkish Aerospace Industries, but my task will be to lead a project aimed at gradually insourcing the complete production to the Netherlands. A large project with major accountability, but also a very educational one that I definitely look forward to. It feels like a perfect challenge that will pave the way for my future intended role as a New Product Introduction (NPI) leader. It will be very exciting and developing to work with new tasks, new products and in a new country.

I really can´t wait to get there!

Dear blog,

It’s been a while, it’s time for another entry. This will be an entry about our visit to GKN Sinter Metals in Germany! As you dedicated readers know, we graduates were on a trip to Germany a while back. Like all the other weeks we’ve travelled, this week too was magical. Apart from fun and interesting study visits, the weather was also perfect – early summer, blazing sun and lots of heat.

Most of our visits on these trips are aerospace related as we ourselves work within aerospace. However, we sometimes choose to visit companies working with other things for various reasons. An example is that we visited Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, which has 70000 (no, not 7000) employees just on this site! Another example was visiting GKN Driveline in Birmingham, to see more of our own business but in a bigger perspective than just the aerospace division.

This time it was time to broaden our horizon and visit GKN Sinter Metals in Bad Langensalza, Germany. Sintering is a manufacturing process where fine metal powder is formed, pressurized and heated until it becomes a solid object. In classical sintering just the metal powder is used for manufacturing of these parts. This means the structure is very sensitive after forming but before sintering. Even touching it can destroy it. However, at GKN Sinter Metals in Bad Langensalza they use a special technique of sintering called MIM – Metal Injection Molding. MIM means mixing the metal powder with plastic beads which is knead into a tight mix of the two ingredients. This is then injected into a formation shell where heat is applied until the plastic melts, creating a solid object. This makes the object much less sensitive than if there was no plastic. The part is then moved to the sintering process where more heat removes the plastic and shrinks the part by about 20% in size. Lastly the remaining material is sintered and the product is finished. If one wishes to perform after-treatment such as chucking or milling that is absolutely no problem.

Some applications where MIM-products are used include common car engines, gear boxes, details in weaponry, locking mechanisms, sensors, and other small delicate metal items. The size of the details produced is from just a few millimeters up to a couple of centimeters. The larger the object the less reliable is the process of MIM.

All in all this was one of our most interesting and fun visits, at least according to me. These visits unrelated to aerospace is very inspiring as one often gets to see products, methods, work forms and more that one didn’t even know existed. Another benefit of being a graduate engineer!

 

Over and out,

Joakim