Product Innovation and Development

BMT Aerospace is best known for its capabilities for manufacturing of gears and other torque transmitting components. It is no surprise that majority of our innovations can be found in the field of production technology such as automation, machining simulation, innovative gear manufacturing through skiving, advanced heat treatments involving press quenching and additive manufacturing to name a few.

Less well known are BMT’s research and development projects targeting product improvements for both technical performance and manufacturability (cost). A broad range of topics is addressed, going from tribology of metal-to-metal contact, material characterisation, surface engineering (heat treatment, roughness, coatings) to geometrical design optimisations for stress and weight, etc.

The goal of this paper is to illustrate BMT’s product innovation and development progress by highlighting the outcome of the recently finished RAPIT project.

Author: Jan Peirs, Sr. Design and R&D Engineer, Jan.Peirs@bmtaerospace.com

Project RAPIT 

The acronym RAPIT stands for Rack and Pinion of Tomorrow. Rack (sector gear) and Pinion are used for the actuation of the wing leading edge slats. This actuation mechanism is proven to be very effective. Nevertheless, new challenges emerge from the desire to design lighter planes, reduce maintenance, limit environmental impact of aviation and at the same time remain competitive.

To address these challenges, BMT Aerospace teamed up with ASCO Industries for the collaborative project RAPIT. The project was carried out from mid 2018 to beginning 2021. BMT Aerospace was responsible for the project coordination and 80% of the workshare. Many design aspect are critically assessed: material, geometrical design and surface treatments. Since the challenges are not unique to this particular component, the solutions are also valuable to other products, i.e. shafts, levers, bearing housings, etc.

The project was structured in such way that there is a balance between analysis and physical prototyping and testing.

Read the full article via the link: BMT Innovation and Development-v4 -Final