Spitfire AA810 is delighted to announce that it has been working with Carl Zeiss Ltd – Industrial Quality Solutions to digitally recreate some early components of Spitfire production ahead of creating the tooling to put these vital components back into manufacture for the restoration. Accuracy is paramount to the restoration team and one item on the restoration agenda that has caused significant issues has been the procurement of the correct early Siamese exhaust system for the Merlin engine that will power Sandy’s Spitfire back into the sky.
With the generosity and assistance of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, Carl Zeiss Ltd brought its latest light-source multi-dimensional metrology equipment to RAF Coningsby to digitally scan a complete set of early exhausts to an accuracy of 5 microns in just a matter of minutes.
This fast scan technology has already been transferred to digital CAD files and will now be used to model the required press tooling to manufacture this iconic exhaust system from the correct Inconel material during 2023.
Speaking of the partnership, Carl Zeiss Ltd - Industrial Quality Solutions Sales Engineer, Rob Wood, said:
“It is fantastic to be involved with helping Sandy’s Spitfire return to the air by using our innovative technologies developed for all manufacturing sectors to help recreate this special exhaust system for the Spitfire. Normally these machines are used for fast Quality Assurance inspection and non-destructive testing reports, but equally with the exclusive access we had to these pattern items, we could employ our technology to rapidly and accurately map each component in a matter of minutes. Once the newly manufactured exhausts have been assembled we will be able to use the same data to compare digitally the new production items with the patterned units and so ensure the total accuracy in production as we do with our clients across industry.”
Carl Zeiss Ltd is a leading manufacturer of metrology solutions including coordinate measuring machines, optical and multi-sensor systems and metrology software for the automotive, aerospace, mechanical engineering, plastics and medical technologies industries. They have developed innovative technologies such as 3D X-ray inspections for quality inspection of structures and products.
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