Foam Cutting

We use a state of the art CNC foam cutter to cut all our cores, this guarantees accurate and repeatable cores - important if you are a kit manufacturer or just want a spare wing years after the original core was made.

The picture shows our cutter loaded with foam ready to cut a customers wing. Click on the picture for a larger view.

There are 2 manual cuts to be made, these are for the span of the wing. Foamwings always make 2 cuts (one each end) rather than rely on the blocks as they are supplied.

Foam is loaded onto theCNC machine and accurately lined up using laser levels.

Blocking out is the term used for creating the blocks of foam from which the cores will be cut. Left & right hand panels are all cut automaitically with our foam cutter.

There are many discussion around whether to cut the top or bottom of the core first - Foamwings cut the top first, then the bottom. Kerf (or burn compensation) is calculated in the software and is dependent on the foam used.

The picture on the right shows the cutter starting the bottom cut having completed the top cut, while the picture below is the final core. Click on either picture for a larger view.

This is how we cut our cores. If you are interested in cutting your own cores by hand, you might find the following links useful:-

http://www.compufoil.com/fc_tutorial.html
http://www.charlesriverrc.org/articles_foam_vac.htm
http://webpages.charter.net/rcfu/ConstGuide/FoamWing.html