GF AgieCharmilles Mikron machines support MTU's blisk machining centre of excellence

The new building in Munich boasts one of the world's most advanced machine pools, including a large fleet of GF AgieCharmilles' milling machines. MTU's centre of excellence for blisks opened in mid-April, following a 20-month construction and installation phase. The Mikron HPM 800U milling machines have been adapted to accommodate MTU's pallet- and clamping-systems. Blisks are high-tech components in which the disk and blades form a single part. They are increasingly used in modern engine compressors. MTU is among the world's leading blisk manufacturers. When the centre of excelence is completely up and running, the shop will have 20 milling machines, seven combined turning and milling machines, and eight coordinate measuring machines, allowing MTU to expand its production capacity from 600 blisks per year to as many as 3,500 blisks per year by 2016. The shop is designed to house up to 24 Mikron milling machines, as part of MTU's optimised, automated process workflow system. With one of the world's largest flexible systems for the production of high- and intermediate pressure blisks, MTU can manufacture many compressor stages for commercial and military engines, including Pratt & Whitney's PW1000G family of engines and its PW800 business jet engine, as well as Europrop International's TP400-D6, which powers A4000M military transport aircraft. A 96 m long main distribution centre, connected to a host computer capable of automatically controlling all processes at any time, the heart of the automated process workflow concept. Every new component will have a routing card, unique order number and integral radio frequency identification (RFID) chip. The order number, in combination with data on the availability of fixtures, tools and computer aided programs, will allow the host computer to calculate the workloads of all of the shop's work stations and allocate components to the available machines through the main distribution system.