Massive mould made for Mitsubishi

Big aircraft need big wings, and big wings need big wing moulds.

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has recently finished what company President Tino Oldani believes is the largest single piece of equipment ever manufactured.

Ingersoll is shipping the piece, a wing mould, to Mitsubishi, the Japanese manufacturer that is making the wings for the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The mould is 33.5 metres long and 7 metres wide. The manufacturing process took about 15 days. The whole process, including the welding, took three months.

Before the mould could be made, the machine to make it had to be constructed. It was so big, Ingersoll could not accommodate it in its factory. In 2005, Ingersoll hired Scandroli Construction to build a 3,700 square metre, $8.5 million addition to Ingersoll’s 46,000 square metre factory just to house the machine needed to make the mould.

Oldani said Ingersoll will build two more of the wing moulds in 2006 and will also build similar moulds for Airbus.