Parts Aplenty

Precision Parts
We know what it takes to keep the fleet flying, and it’s the same thing that it takes to build aircraft.

It takes parts!

Our goal is to be the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) on as many of these parts as possible, and we have hundreds of people working on that at several locations. Today, we’re looking at Calgary 8.

We’re tasked with producing many thousands of parts that have remarkably small tolerances (e.g. accurate to within 1000th of an inch), and we have to do it swiftly and efficiently, and Calgary 8 has recently acquired some game-changing tech that is going to save us time and money with no change in quality.

New Haas in the House
The Haas VF5 is a computer-guided milling machine. It shapes solid aluminum blocks into aircraft parts by removing material. It’s a manufacturing marvel, and we’ve acquired four more in the last year.

The Haas can carve away aluminum by moving a cutter up and down, side to side, and forwards and backwards (or three axes, as our manufacturing folks would say). It can even switch out bits automatically. However, the parts still sometimes need to be rotated to create the angles for the shapes we need.

Accessing Another Axis
This used to mean opening up the machine, turning the part, and clamping it down again. But, in addition to the new machines, we’ve also acquired a rotating platform called a trunnion. This platform is guided by the computer system as well, and it rotates the part as needed.

Bottom Line
What will this do for us? We can produce the same high-quality parts at a 75% decreased run time. That’s right. The same precise tolerances and the same material in a fraction of the time. That’s significant cost savings and the opportunity to take a bigger piece of the market. And that’s a story worth sharing!