Aerospace sales are to increase to 25%
The takeover of the French Forest Liné Industries Group by the American MAG Group provides another important opening to composite technology for Göppingen-based MAG IAS GmbH which runs most of the MAG Group’s operative business in Europe. Martin Winterstein, Chief Marketing Officer of MAG talked exclusively to aerotec to explain what this would mean in terms of aircraft construction.
With its takeover of Forest Liné, MAG is making a clear statement in favor of carbon fiber technology. What level of market growth is anticipated in this segment?
Current studies show that the share of composites in materials used for commercial aircraft will increase to around 40 to 50 percent across the board. In order to meet the technological demands arising from this, the systems for fiber placement and tape laying have to be refined. This is where the strengths of MAG and Forest Liné especially come into play, for example with complex fiber placement applications or in the manufacture of wing components using tape laying methods.
What is the share of the aerospace industry in relation to the total business volume of MAG IAS and what strategic objectives are linked to this sector?
The aerospace share of MAG’s global sales currently stands at one fifth. In addition to the technological synergies in the field of composites, we are also clustering our expertise in large-scale parts processing and for materials which are difficult to machine. The aim is to increase the share of aerospace in global MAG sales to around 25 percent over the next five years.
What is the timing and organizational planning for integrating Forest Liné in the MAG Group? Will the Forest Liné brand be preserved?
MAG and FLI will be offering complete solutions throughout all markets right away, and our customers will benefit from a joint global network. Forest Liné will also be presented as part of the MAG Group at the EMO. We will also be starting to integrate our manufacturing network, which promises further synergy effects in supplying large-scale components from our Hungarian plant in particular.
Will the Göppingen site be redefined as a result?
The GP Composites Center will remain the composites site for Germany. Our customers benefit from local contacts for application technology as well as service, support and contract production. The Composites Center is currently being expanded for automotive applications and robot solutions.
What exactly will the acquisition mean in terms of the MAG Group’s technological expertise in processing composites?
Both partners will contribute their specific benefits in the area of tape laying and fiber placement. The strengths of the two complement each other: MAG as the pioneer and the manufacturer with the most machines in the field and Forest Liné with over 20 years of development experience in composites technology. Highlights will certainly be the VIPER series (formerly Cincinnati) of fiber placement machines and MAG’s cross-technology ACES software, as well as Forest Liné’s cutting and tape laying technology ATLAS and ACCESS. Initial exchanges have already shown that there will be mutual benefits in terms of ongoing development projects such as robot-based and vertical fiber placement systems.
Does this mean that MAG now covers all areas of aircraft construction? What is still missing?
We now cover most applications and will be able to close the circle at the EMO this year. For MAG this means we are now able to offer a complete manufacturing solution, including machines, tools, consumables and production optimization. This already applies to composites processing, machining large-scale parts in aluminum, titanium, steel etc. and we will extend it to include new machine solutions for turbine components and our new nitrogen cooling system. This so-called cryogenic processing will significantly increase productivity in machining titanium, Inconel etc.
What´s going on with automating composites processing?
Intelligent robot solutions currently promise great benefits in terms of cost and versatility, both for machining and laminating. At the EMO will be presenting a system for processing rotor blade root ends which uses innovations in control engineering to replace a heavy and expensive portal milling machine. In CFK Valley in Stade you can see an example of highly flexible manufacture of composites parts: the GroFi system, a joint project with the German Aerospace Center (DLR). This highly flexible system consists of autonomous robots using cutting-edge measuring technology and an intelligent guidance and material handling concept to achieve the same productivity and quality as larger, more expensive systems. In addition to technological innovations, the performance capacity and process reliability of automated processing of composites is certainly the key issue. It is also very important to respond swiftly and reliably to service requests.
Forest Liné is also well known as a machine builder in the field of titanium processing. What priority is attached to this area within the MAG Group?
MAG draws on decades of experience in titanium machining. Our portal milling machines and machining centers for structural parts, chassis components, turbine parts etc. are used in all the major aircraft construction programs. As in the field of composites, the expertise of the two companies is once again perfectly matched here. The new machine concepts and new process technology is also enabling us to move into new application areas such as smaller turbine components. We anticipate an increase in demand similar to composites and are preparing ourselves accordingly.
When can the aviation industry expect to see a boost in the development of titanium processing?
At the EMO we are presenting two innovations that can certainly be described as major steps in this direction. Firstly the nitrogen cooling system mentioned above, which achieves significant improvements in titanium processing in particular. Then there is a new horizontal project for large-scale part processing developed as part of a customer project: this will also provide a productivity boost in the field of titanium processing.
What aerospace-based processing solutions will MAG IAS be focusing on at the EMO in Hannover in September?
Apart from interior spindle/tool cooling with nitrogen, which promises significant advantages over all previous cooling technologies and will especially benefit aerospace manufacturing, the main focus will be on new machine concepts, automation and application technologies. These include the platform for large-scale titanium parts processing just mentioned, a further development of the cutting technology ACCESS and Forest Liné’s Flexitool universal clamping system, as well as blisk processing with nitrogen on MAG’s 5-axis vertical milling center NBV.
Interview conducted by Christian Klein
German Summary
Durch die Übernahme der französischen Forest-Liné-Industries-Gruppe durch die amerikanische MAG-Gruppe eröffnet sich auch der Göppinger MAG IAS GmbH, die den wesentlichen Teil des operativen Geschäfts der MAG-Gruppe in Europa betreibt, ein weiteres wichtiges Tor zur Composite-Technologie. Was das für den Flugzeugbau bedeutet, erläutert Martin Winterstein, Chief Marketing Officer von MAG im Exclusiv-Interview aerotec-Redakteur Christian Klein. Der deutschsprachige Beitrag ist nachzulesen auf: www.aerotec-online.com/aero0211mag
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