Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) of Holes in F-35 Structure

ABSTRACT: Hole preparation for aircraft manufacturing is the one of the highest manufacturing costs at approximately 30 percent. The current manual method for hole preparation is to drill a pilot hole (typically 0.128-inch diameter) then perform multiple reaming steps to achieve final diameter. Military aircraft and certain areas of commercial aircraft utilize thick, exotic materials to achieve strength-to-weight requirements. The current manual, multistep process is time consuming and ergonomically difficult. Perfect Point has developed a patented technology that is commercially available for aircraft fastener removal. The purpose of responding to this SBIR Solicitation is to evaluate whether Perfect Point"s technology can be adapted to the task of drilling holes in multiple material stacks used in airplane manufacture. Perfect Point has already demonstrated our technology is able to cut every type of conductive material included in multiple material stack samples provided by aircraft manufacturers. The next step is to evaluate whether the technology can be adapted such that all materials can be cut to specifications while stacked, eliminating burrs and the need to de-stack materials prior to final assembly. BENEFIT: The resulting technological advances may be commercialized in the form of tools to be used in the airplane manufacturing process that could result in a significant reduction of manufacturing costs. The commercial product(s) would be of interest to any manufacturer of commercial or military aircraft in which incorporate thick, exotic, multiple material stacks (including mixes of composite and metal) are used.