Deep hole drilling and deep hole machining for the aerospace industry

Drillstar provides deep hole drilling machines to produce critical machined features in engine manufacturing, power transmission, airframe and landing gear.  Many of these components are made from exotic materials such as Inconel and titanium.  Drillstar builds machines that are engineered for these applications.

Large aerospace industry OEM’s as well as subcontract machine shops rely on Drillstar  machines for drilling aerospace components.

Deep hole drilling machines are used to create finished bores with very difficult characteristics. These bores exceed the capabilities of multi-tasking machining centers, even when gundrilling or deep hole drilling tools are applied.  The same machines can also be used for the first roughing operations with very high metal removal rates, or to establish a workpiece centerline with very straight, very deep holes that can be used as a starting point for mill/turn or precision turning operations.

Drillstar machines are used for advanced internal machining using CNC bottle boring is available on many of our machines to extend capabilities beyond the norm.

Tooling systems for aerospace deep hole drilling applications

Gundrilling – internal coolant delivery with external chip return.

Solid carbide, brazed and indexable

Diameters from 1mm – 40mm

BTA deep hole drilling – external coolant delivery with internal chip return

Drilling, counterboring, bottom forming, skiving, burnishing, trepanning

Diameters from 20mm – 500mm

Bottle boring for internal contouring

Engineers and product designers at Aerospace manufacturers are always looking for ways to reduce weight and extend performance.  Internal contours deep inside bores are possible using the bottle boring process.  These applications can be challenging, but Drillstar has systemized the process using the same CNC capabilities available in CNC turning on the outside of the part.

Aerospace Shaft Components

Drillstar machines are capable of drilling holes deeper that 100:1 ratio.  Centerline drift is reduced dramatically by using the counter-rotation process, which is standard on most Drillstar center-drilling machines.

Rigid, preloaded drive system and high precision spindles get the most out of the latest gundrilling and BTA drilling tools.  Easy to use and flexible machines are a at home in a Aerospace job shop or original equipment manufacturers for production of rotor shafts, turbines, thrust arrestors, turnbuckles and many other components.

Landing Gear Components

Many aerospace components start with forgings with long extended arms or lugs that need to be fixtured and equalized, and the machines must swing these parts in order to use counter rotation or maintain optimal tool orientation.  Drillstar B-series machines are commonly used for these challenging applications.

Drillstar deep hole drilling machines for landing gear have very high power headstocks with enormous spindle torque, but with the available advanced CNC and motion controllers, these machines are refined and capable of the most difficult deep hole machining applications.