Story ID: 
Dreamliner contract to Doncasters
By: AIN Staff
Caption: The Doncasters Group, headquartered in Melbourne, UK, recently signed its largest single contract in its 226-year history to produce turbo-machinery for th
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The Doncasters Group, headquartered in Melbourne, UK, recently signed its largest single contract in its 226-year history to produce turbo-machinery for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner auxiliary power unit (AP5000). The alliance with Hamilton Sundstrand Power Systems of San Diego, California, has potential revenues of $300 million for Doncasters, which employs some 4,300 people at more than 20 sites in Europe, the U.S. and Mexico.

For the new Dreamliner contract, Doncasters will supply kits, subsystems and assemblies from forgings, fabrications of single-crystal castings, equiaxed grain castings and precision-machined components.

Also for the 787, Doncasters will manufacture the large profile ring-rolled forgings for the turbine section of the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine for the new airplane. The company expects to deliver the first developmental forgings in August. It is also producing precision castings for the Trent 1000 in an alliance with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Rolls-Royce plans certification of the engine in 2007.

Doncasters also will manufacture torque tubes for the Airbus A380 brake system under a contract with Dunlop Aerospace, which in collaboration with Honeywell Aircraft Landing Systems, is responsible to supply the gargantuan airliner’s wheels and brakes. 

With weight reduction a major objective of the A380 design, Doncasters will, instead of forging the tubes to spec, manufacture them to more exacting requirements using titanium investment casting. The company is also supply the leading edge slat cans for the A380, the aft pylon fairing and several parts for the airliner’s Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine.

Besides manufacturing components and assemblies for the aerospace industry, The Doncasters Group also makes products for the power generation, specialty automotive and medical orthopedic industries.