Alloy Heat Treatment (AHT), a specialist in the heat treatment of aluminum alloy, has developed and is set to launch an innovative mobile heat treatment service.
The Dudley-based (UK) firm, a member of the manufacturing alliance Made in the Midlands, is targeting the new service in support of the additive layer manufacturing market in the UK and Europe, especially in the aerospace and motorsport (F1 and MotoGP) sectors.
“The proposed service is currently being designed to be transported on the back of a fix-bed lorry,” said sales director Ian Perks. “We aim to fill a gap in the AM market, as we feel that this innovation will provide a great benefit to aerospace, F1 and Moto GP organisations; and with the global AM market predicted to be worth more than $6.6 billion by 2026, we are hopeful that the service will attract plenty of interest.”
AHT would load the service onto a truck and then drive to a customer’s designated location to enable them to offer rapid heat treatment processes within tight schedules.
Fine Tubes technical team with 4th Nadcap Certificate: Valerie Hart, Technical Manager; Dr. Abdul Saeid, Process Engineer; Wayne Taylor-Vicary, Deputy Cell Leader; David Killoran, Welding Process Engineer; Rob Eatwell, Quality Manager
A precision tubing manufacturer has been awarded a Nadcap accreditation for chemical processing. This is the fourth Nadcap approval awarded to Fine Tubes; its first accreditation was for heat treating in 2004, followed by nondestructive testing (ultrasonic testing) in 2005 and fusion welding in 2013. In addition, the Plymouth (UK)-based manufacturer anticipates receiving another accreditation for fluid distribution systems shortly.
Nadcap is an internationally recognised accreditation system that covers the key manufacturing and production processes used within the aerospace industry.
Very few companies hold four Nadcap accreditations simultaneously.
Chemical processing is a critical part of the Fine Tubes production process. Tubes must be chemically milled after the cold-working and heat-treating manufacturing processes, by being etched to ensure they meet the customer specification requirements.
“The tubing we manufacture is designed to withstand in-process fatigue loading, and failure is not an option. When aircraft manufacturers need tubing, they inevitably look for suppliers who can demonstrate the most-stringent quality standards. Nadcap accreditation is widely viewed as confirmation of that, and, so with every Nadcap accreditation that we earn, we further enhance our ability to win new contracts,” comments David Killoran, representing the Fine Tubes’ technical team.
To achieve its latest accreditation, Fine Tubes undertook an intensive on-site inspection and investigation by a Nadcap auditor. This audit covers all aspects of the process – the machinery, consumables, and methods employed, as well as the qualifications and experience of the staff involved in the process.
“The auditor found no failures to comply with the Nadcap criteria, and that is a major credit to the Fine Tubes production team involved in the audit,” said Dr. Abdul Saeid, Process Engineer at Fine Tubes.
Fine Tubes and its US-based sister company, Superior Tube, are units of AMETEK Specialty Metal Products and both have supplied the aerospace industry with high-performance tubes for more than fifty years. Their precision tubes are used in airframes, aircraft engines and aerospace instrumentation, where they are relied upon to withstand the most-critical operating conditions.
An aerospace parts manufacturer recently acquired an electrically heated aluminum aging oven as part of an upgrade of its line. The SWH series batch oven was ordered to replace antiquated equipment in order to facilitate compliance with AMS 2750E Class 2 specifications. Wisconsin Ovens, a Thermal Product Solutions (“TPS”) brand, completed the shipment in August 2017.
Fifteen atmosphere and vacuum furnaces were shipped to customers in aerospace, commercial heat treating and MIM industries around the world during the second quarter of 2017, including China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.
The shipments included:
* Two large, vertical (bottom-loading) MetalMaster® vacuum furnaces, each with a 120″ (3 m) diameter work zone and 10,000-pound (4,500 kg) load capacity
* Five standard TITAN® vacuum furnaces complete with PdMetrics®
* Debind and sinter vacuum furnaces for the MIM industry
* ATLAS integral quench atmosphere furnace, which was delivered six weeks after order placement
In addition to these transactions, Ipsen USA of Cherry Valley, Illinois, delivered several custom-built vacuum furnaces that will process parts for the aerospace industry.
Karen Stanton, owner and director of HTA Group, Photo Credit: LinkedIn
Heat Treatment Australia (HTA), a commercial and aerospace heat treater based in Brisbane, Australia, recently secured industry agreements with two of the world’s largest global defense companies, Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems’ Controls and Avionics Solutions.
Lockheed Martin granted the F-35 supplier accreditation of its newly established facility in Sante Fe Springs, California, its first outside Australia, to provide thermal processing services for U.S. heat treat customers and to process stainless steel orders from Australian companies before the raw material leaves U.S. shores.
“We hope this new US facility will provide opportunities for HTA to collaborate with other Australian companies, and that our US-based thermal processing capabilities will be an asset to Australian industry,” said Karen Stanton, owner and director of HTA Group. “HTA’s entry into the US market aligns with the Australian government’s 2016 Defence Industry Policy Statement, and will subsequently boost Australian Global Supply Chain opportunities, creating more jobs and economic benefit to Australia.”
In addition, BAE Systems, based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has awarded HTA a contract for the supply of pressure manifolds for commercial aircraft jet engines in the U.S. The pressure manifolds are part of the digital engine controls for the LEAP family of jet engines. The LEAP engines will power some of the biggest fleets of commercial aircraft in the world, including Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A320neo.
HTA will use its recently opened state-of-the-art thermal processing facilities in Brisbane to assemble the manifolds.
Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne, upon congratulating the company for their achievements, said, “This will increase Australian companies’ competitiveness in the U.S. and other global markets and gain access to new global supply chain opportunities.”
HTA is the only aerospace heat treater in Australia with AS9100 and Nadcap accreditations. The company has branches in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and now Los Angeles.
Nitinol’s shape memory and superelastic properties allow it to be used in a wide range of applications in the aerospace, medical, consumer technology, telecommunications, and automotive industries. In particular, heat treatment and thermomechanical processes can change the parent shape of Nitinol wire, making it indispensable for use in medical devices. Read more: Using Heat Treatment and Thermal Shape Memory to Tailor Nitinol to Your Application by AZO Materials
A recently article in Crain’s Cleveland Business news (click here for full article) featured Component Repair Technologies (CRT), an aerospace heat treating company that performs a wide variety of in-house aircraft engine repair processes including machining, flame spray applications, welding, heat treat, chrome and nickel plating, shot peening, nondestructive testing, visual and dimensional inspection, and acid and alkaline cleaning . The company works on a wide variety of parts from several different engine models.
The Crain’s article featured a photo of a large vertical vacuum furnace manufactured by Solar Manufacturing, Inc. The furnace was designed and built specifically to CRT requirements.
The furnace is critical for CRT’s daily operations and has logged more than four thousand cycles since being commissioned over five years ago. The unit is in use virtually 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The furnace pictured has a working hot zone 84″ in diameter by 60″ high and will operate to 2400ºF in high vacuum conditions. The furnace has a hearth capacity of 5,000 lbs. and includes a 300 HP motor fan and heat exchanger for rapid argon gas quenching at up to two atmospheres overpressure. Under heating and in the vacuum mode, the furnace operates to the mid-10-5 Torr vacuum range — approximately the same vacuum level found on the surface of the moon.
(Photo courtesy: Component Repair Technologies, Inc. ) Elevator hearth vacuum furnace at Component Repair Technologies, Mentor, Ohio
One hundred Boeing 737 planes are scheduled to be delivered from the first overseas factory in China beginning in 2018. China is expected to become the world’s first trillion-dollar aviation market within 20 years. Read more to find out what needs to be developed in order to support this new manufacturing.
Triumph Group, Inc.was selected by Korea Aerospace Industries, Ltd., to provide Airframe Mounted Accessory Drives (AMAD) on the new KF-X fighter aircraft. The contract is in support of the latest generation of the air superiority fighter, which is scheduled to make its first flight in mid-2022 and begin low-rate initial production in 2024. The KF-X program is slated to benefit the Republic of Korea Air Force and the Indonesian Air Force.
“We are pleased to support the KF-X fighter program, which will replace the aging Korean fleet of F-4s and F-5s, as well as equip the Indonesian Air Force,”said Tom Holzthum, executive vice president of Triumph Integrated Systems. “This win will allow Triumph to showcase the extensive capability and experience of our Geared Solutions business.”
Triumph Integrated Systems’ Geared Solutions site in Park City, Utah, will design and produce the AMADs, which receive and distribute engine power to operate generators, pumps and other aircraft systems, and also carry the main engine starter turbine. The AMADs on the KF-X fighter jet will feature the latest innovations in the company’s aircraft accessory gearbox product line.
Bodycote is pleased to announce that its Chesterfield, UK hot isostatic pressing (HIP) location earned, for the second time, the highest level of Nadcap accreditation following the most recent Nadcap audit. The official approval was awarded on 2 February 2017.
As one of the original HIP facilities to achieve this standard, the site is now targeting to further extend its Merit status. This is building on a long history of supplying Hot Isostatic Pressing to the world’s aerospace prime manufacturers and their first tier suppliers.
Moving forward, the Chesterfield site continues to play a strategic, long term role for new aerospace high technology programs, and Bodycote continues to invest in resources and capital for development and operations to meet the demands required for this future growth.
