AIRBUS WINGS MOVED BY EURO-BEARINGS

January 2005

This month the Airbus A380 "superjumbo" airliner has been unveiled to the public. This incredible piece of engineering has been aided by Euro-Bearings Ltd's jumbo combined roller bearings and welded steel channel.

The wings for this superjumbo are being manufactured in Broughton and are then shipped to Toulouse for assembly to the fuselage. However, moving such a gigantic yet fragile structure is not easy!

In order to get the wings from the factory at Broughton to the port at Mostyn (on the River Dee), a special jig & trailer is used. On arrival at Mostyn, the Airbus wings are lifted from the trailer & loaded onto the barge using a rig manufactured from Euro-Bearings Ltd's steel channel & jumbo combined roller bearings.

The principle is similar to that of a forklift truck except this is on a much larger scale (these 4.093 bearings have a dynamic load capacity of 1066kN and are nearly a foot in diameter!).

The wings then travel by sea to Bordeaux before being trans-shipped by a barge on the River Garonne to Toulouse for assembly.

For more information on these bearings & profiles, please see the links in the left hand navigation bar.