How do I explain it to my child: BÖHLER Aerospace

Many vehicles need metal parts: bicycles, cars, scooters... Why are we so focused on aircraft parts at voestalpine, and especially at BÖHLER?

Over 120 years ago Gustave Eiffel showed the world what you can build using steel. Today his tower is the symbol of Paris. And not far away, in Le Bourget, at the Paris Air Show companies showed what they can manufacture with their materials: modern aircraft parts. That’s why the BÖHLER companies went to Paris in June 2015. Their products are used to build the biggest airplanes.

Böhler parts in the airplane

Several BÖHLER products in the airplane (© BÖHLER Schmiedetechnik)

Before taking off, huge airplanes weighing more than 100 African elephants (although elephants can’t fly) rest on undercarriages which include parts made by BÖHLER Schmiedetechnik. Böhler PROFIL helps ensure that hatches and doors stay tightly closed. Inside the enormous jet engines, parts made by BÖHLER Edelstahl help the aircraft fly at the right speed. And landing flaps made from BÖHLER plates ensure a soft landing.

Hot, warm, cold

It’s amazing what these parts have to cope with. The pieces connecting the wings have to bear the weight of the aircraft body, including the passengers and their baggage. Parts in the jet engines get spun around 10,000 times every minute. They also have to tolerate temperatures of 600°C and above. And when the airplane climbs to heights of over 10,000 m it gets bitterly cold; its parts have to work at temperatures lower than -50°C.

An experiment

Just huge: jet engines

What does cold do to things? Take a piece of chewing gum and chew it for half an hour. It’s really elastic, isn’t it? Now roll it into a ball and pop it in the freezer. Wait for three hours, and then test its flexibility again… The cold has changed its material properties. Although aircraft parts aren’t made of chewing gum, the properties of metals also change when it gets really cold. This has to be taken into account when designing an aircraft. That’s why at BÖHLER we consider very carefully which materials to use and how to process them. After all, we want the aircraft to arrive safely.
Operating together as ‘Böhler Aerospace’, the companies BÖHLER Edelstahl, BÖHLER Schmiedetechnik, BÖHLER Bleche, BÖHLER Profile, and voestalpine RFC all sell materials and parts used in aircraft and helicopters. Representatives from each of these companies met their customers at the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget in June 2015, to exhibit and sell their products. The Paris Air Show is a huge event which is held on an airfield near France’s capital city.

Further information:

All blog posts Paris Air Show 2015