Aerospace Machining refers to all of the CNC machining involved in making aircraft of all types, including commercial and military jets, as well as corporate jets, rotorcraft, and even missiles and spacecraft.
Machining of aircraft parts can be divided among two distinct parts of the plane: the structure and the engine. Machined components in these two areas present two different sets of machining challenges.
Machining of the structure has traditionally involved machining considerable amounts of aluminum. In the future, composites will play a larger role in aircraft structures, but the amount of machined aluminum will continue to be substantial. An aircraft structural component machined out of solid aluminum may require as much as 80 to 90 percent of the mass of an aluminum block to be milled away, so high metal removal rates are important. Specifically, high speed machining is likely to be important. Another technology important to machining of aircraft structural components is five-axis machining, because the aerodynamic curves of aircraft structures requires machined parts that are similarly contoured.
In machining of engine components, the challenge relates more to machining titanium alloys and nickel-based alloys. Many of the same properties that allow these materials to withstand the heat of a jet engine also make them among the most difficult metals to machine with acceptable productivity and tool life. Composites play a growing role in aircraft engines as well, so machining of composites (as well as machining of titanium) is a discipline that is equally relevant to both types of airplane parts.