The Company’s aerostructure facility in the U.S. is dedicated to providing large, highly-complex, monolithic machined parts, kits and assemblies for military aircraft OEMs. The plant is a premier manufacturer of Aluminum Lithium, Titanium, and large Aluminum alloy components. The profile milling of complex aluminum and titanium parts used to assemble military and commercial aircraft is a specialty of the Arlington facility.
Equipment
The fabrication technology used by Héroux-Devtek to manufacture aerospace structural components includes:
- A Makino Mag3-EX machine with a 33,000 rpm spindle and five-axis capabilities; this machine has a continuous rotation on the C axis and a +/- 110 degrees on the B axis; with a dual pallet changer, it can operate continuously;
- Heroux-Devtek’s Texas plant operates over thirty multi-axis SNK machines. The majority are high speed and five-axis, and several have a tool changer capacity of up to 180 tools. These machines can handle parts of up to 288 inches long by 192 inches wide;
- Four multi-spindle five axis gantry machines mounted on a bed exceeding 200 feet in length, allowing for longer travel limits; each is equipped with three spindles and a 20 tool auto-changer, allowing for shorter machining time by producing multiple parts in one run, and cutting down on operator intervention for tool changes;
- Two CMM Machines to automate the part checking process, contained in a 68 degree Fahrenheit (+/- 1 degree), climate controlled room to minimize expansion/contraction in the granite blocks used by the machines;
- The Texas plant also operates several other CNC machines.