Concurrent design and manufacturing for aircraft torque tubes

This paper presents an application of concurrent design and manufacturing paradigm to aircraft torque tubes. The torque tubes are located inside the wing that push and pull the front leading flaps during landing. Three tubes are on each side of the wing. The tubes are made up of magnesium through casting. The magnesium is light but is poor in corrosion-resistance. In addition, the casting process is extremely cost ineffective in supporting just-in-time manufacturing. Virtual prototyping and rapid prototyping techniques are employed to support both product and process re-engineering in a concurrent manner. The product re-engineering focuses on replacing magnesium with aluminum so as to eliminate the corrosion problems. Shape optimization technique was employed to reduce weight of the tube and maintain its strength. StereoLithography sample was fabricated using SLA 7000 to support design verification. In addition, manufacturing process is re-engineered by replacing casting with machining.