The test was performed by cutting
47 mm long finger joints in a cone
shaped 12 mm thick carbon fibre
material with a circumference of 7.2
metres. The incision needed a tolerance
of 0.1 mm around the circle, to
be able to safely be glued together.
A highly advanced FiveX machine
system from Water Jet Sweden was
chosen for the test.
“Our FiveX machine system is
unique since it has a combination
of extreme precision and a full 3D
abrasive cutting ability. It is specially
designed for this kind of advanced
applications, cutting with a repetition
accuracy of +/- 0.025 mm,” says
Tony.
The was successful and gave to
clear conclusions. First of all, it
proved that full carbon payload
adapters are possible on future
launch vehicles, and secondly,
it showed that abrasive waterjet
cutting is a suitable cutting technology
for carbon materials and future
rocket science.
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