AFS addressing aircraft structural casting manufacturing questions.The U.S. metalcasting industry may have hit a bump in the runway. Several questions have been voiced in recent months regarding the applicability of castings in airframe structures. Some of the concerns regard statistical variability, costly quality inspections and late delivery. In response to these concerns presented by the airframe industry and the Federal Aviation Administration Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), component of the U.S. Department of Transportation that sets standards for the air-worthiness of all civilian aircraft, inspects and licenses them, and regulates civilian and military air traffic through its air traffic control (FAA), the American Foundry Society 2-D Structural Cast Aluminum Committee and leading aerospace stakeholders have held workshops in recent months to discuss the future of cast primary structural components. The first meeting was held in July, when representatives from 11 companies, including Spirit AeroSystems Spirit AeroSystems, Inc. ("Spirit" NYSE: SPR), based in Wichita, Kansas, is the world's largest first-tier aerostructures manufacturer. The company builds several important pieces of Boeing aircraft, including the fuselage of the 737, portions of the 787 fuselage, and the (a Boeing supplier), participated in a Structural Castings Workshop at AFS A distributed file system for large, widely dispersed Unix and Windows networks from Transarc Corporation, now part of IBM. It is noted for its ease of administration and expandability and stems from Carnegie-Mellon's Andrew File System. AFS - Andrew File System . Participants discussed ways to maintain global leadership in the high-profile aerospace market, the opportunities available, and impediments from the FAA and Joint Aviation Authorities The Joint Aviation Authorities, or JAA, is an associated body of the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) representing the civil aviation regulatory authorities of a number of European States who have agreed to co-operate in developing and implementing common safety (JAA JAA Joint Aviation Authorities (European equivalent of FAA) JAA Judge Advocates Association JAA Junior Achievement of Armenia JAA Just Another Acronym JAA Joint Action Area JAA Joint Aerospace Applications ). Some of the issues presented were declining confidence in castings and regulations such as Title 14 CFR CFR See: Cost and Freight 25.613, which restricts primary structures to materials which have statistically verifiable properties. In August, representatives from nine metalcasting facilities, along with AFS, met at Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kan. Designated Engineering Representatives of the FAA helped the group to better understand compliance before formulating a plan to address their concerns. Areas of concern identified by the consortium include material property variability, dimensional tolerance variability, subjective and costly casting inspections and late delivery. The group also devised several plans of action to combat these perceptions. AFS has begun efforts to secure funding through the American Metalcasting Consortium to address these needs. The group will need to develop in-kind funds within the next two months. The next meeting is tentatively scheduled to take place in October in Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine, with a 2004 population of 63,882. Portland is Maine's cultural, social and economic capital. Tourists are drawn to Portland's historic Old Port district along Portland Harbor, which is at the mouth of the Fore River and part . For more information or to become involved, contact Joe Santner, AFS Director of Research, at jss@afsinc.org or 847/824-0181. |
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