PTI Industries Help Aerospace Manufacturers Meet Increasing Demand

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precision componentOur previous blog post on the aerospace industry focused on the critical safety and quality of aircraft components. PTI helps keep aircraft in safe flying condition by providing multiple manufacturing services with our hundreds of special process approvals from over forty OEMs, and certifications from the FAA, EASA, and NADCAP.

This update focuses on the high demand for new commercial aircraft. A worldwide commercial aircraft demand presents new challenges for both airframe and engine manufacturers alike. The global aerospace industry faces the challenge of improving productivity and responding to ever increasing government regulations.

The expected growth rate is largely driven by an increased demand for new low-cost carriers from emerging economies and their growing middle class.  Projected growth estimates from 2015 through 2033 total over 35,000 new aircraft, with an average of eight and a half planes and seventeen aircraft engines a day.

These opportunities mean aerospace manufacturers need qualified suppliers and service providers. The required scope and knowledge to invest in and perform advanced manufacturing services is part of the ongoing challenge aerospace companies must face as they redouble efforts to reduce costs.

PTI helps to alleviate this challenge by reducing lead times with ten special processes performed in-house, at one location, including:

  • Adhesive Bonding
  • Dry Film Lubrication
  • Magnesium Coatings
  • Non-Destructive Testing
  • Pressure Testing
  • Passivation
  • Precision Cleaning & Cleanliness Testing
  • Repair Services
  • Shot Peen

World travel is anticipated to continue growing over the next twenty years by five percent per year as it has since 1980. The numbers of annual flight passengers will rise from a fifth of the population in emerging markets to two thirds, with global passenger numbers doubling to over six billion.

As the market for worldwide commercial aircraft grows, PTI’s special process technology has the advanced techniques needed to help meet the new volume challenge for aerospace components.

PTI Services Touch Every Type of Engine on Every Type of Aircraft in the Free World

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plane in the skyWhether it’s a voyager space probe, traffic-watching media helicopter, a B-2 bomber, or a commercial wide-body passenger jet, all aerospace products must be light, to be gravity-defying, as well as strong. They are produced from specialized materials that operate in extreme conditions. Aerospace parts must be manufactured, maintained, and continually tested to precise specifications in order to avoid the smallest defect that could lead to operating failure.

For more than thirty years, PTI has worked with both commercial and military aerospace, reaching every type of engine on every type of aircraft in the free world. With hundreds of specialized process approvals from more than forty OEMs, and certifications from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), and National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program (Nadcap), our commitment to aerospace is part of our mission here at PTI.

Working to keep aircraft in safe flying condition is a critical aerospace industry service. PTI technicians follow detailed regulations to service aircraft components and systems including airframes, piston engines, turbine engines, hydraulic systems, and electrical systems with multiple specialized processes. Our one-stop specialized processes for aerospace components include repair services, non-destructive testing, shot peen, passivation, precision cleaning, magnesium coatings, adhesive bonding, dry film lubrication, and pressure testing.

Getting your multiple high-end process solutions performed in one stop yields significant savings in aerospace manufacturing lead times, without sacrificing rigid performance specifications and requirements. As a leader in the aerospace support services industry, every aircraft component PTI touches receives paramount attention to detail in safety, reliability, and efficiency.

Workforce Fair & Tradeshow Keeps Growing

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DSC_7245PTI Industries exhibited at the annual Aerospace Component Manufacturers (ACM) tradeshow on October 23rd in Windsor, CT. This show gives customers and students the chance to see the World’s Aerospace Alley first hand at their annual “Future Workforce Opportunities” Fair & Tradeshow. Seventy ACM firms attended demonstrating their commitment to collaborate and build their businesses.

One of the ACM’s goals is to work together on workforce training and continue to provide vital connections between the aerospace industries and its future workforce. The ACM morning fair saw 800 enthusiastic students, ranging from eighth grade through high school and representing thirty-six schools from twenty-six local towns.

Aerospace companies worked to answer the student’s questions and discussed the importance of STEM classes in preparing for their future. U.S. Senator Christopher Murphy came to support ACM and speak with the students who were quick to capitalize on taking selfies with the senator.

Later in the show, ACM members met and made business connections, strengthening the supply chain within the aerospace corridor. The show grows every year, highlighting the broad capabilities of the Connecticut and southwestern Massachusetts’ aerospace suppliers while demonstrating the importance of aerospace manufacturing to the region’s economy.

ACM encourages aerospace manufacturers to collaborate with fellow manufacturers as well as special process houses to enhance the value of their product offerings. PTI Industries was there to exhibit its specialized processes available to aerospace manufacturers, including precision cleaning, adhesive bonding and shot peening to name a few.

PTI Industries Exhibiting at Annual ACM Show

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We will be exhibiting at the ACM Tradeshow to be held October 23, 2014

Hartford – Windsor Airport Marriott Hotel
Windsor, Connecticut.

ACM sloganThe trade show offers decision makers,  supply chain managers and company representatives a unique opportunity to visit current suppliers, identify new suppliers and discuss new and creative procurement opportunities – all under one roof – all in one day. It is the belief of many of the ACM firm’s that “Working together as a network, ACM member companies can collectively offer broader capabilities then they could as individuals”.

We would welcome the opportunity to meet with you that day. Please contact us at 1-800-318-8438 to set up a time.

ACM logo

For more information about ACM, go to the ACM website. Check out the video on their home page.

Exclusive – 3 Tips to Eliminating Contamination in Aerospace Components

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At PTI, our passion is helping our clients reduce their manufacturing lead times.  Every month, our experts will share their insights and experience on the specialized processes that we deliver, on time, every day for our aerospace, medical, automotive and commercial customers.

This month, we will be focusing our attention upon contamination in aerospace components.  Today’s significant technological advances and the advent of nanotechnology, components that are exposed to any outside contamination, in some cases as small as 5 microns, could suffer catastrophic failure.

Overview

The importance of eliminating contamination in aerospace components first became relevant during the Second World War with the development of the Norden Bombsight and the first navigational gyroscopes.  What the military discovered was that even the smallest particles, less them 50 microns, would cause either of these devices to malfunction.

The technological advancements that followed the war came with a significant challenge: they required ever increasing degrees of cleanliness.  The development of cleanliness standards for critical components was the direct result of satisfying the need for common terminology and standardization.

In 1962 a military standard, known as MIL-STD-1246 was created to establish guidelines and requirements for the specification of cleanliness levels essential to product reliability and quality.  In 1997 the U.S. Army commissioned the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology (IEST) to adapt this military standard and create the industry standard knows as IEST-STD-CC1246.

Today, the importance of this standard extends far beyond military applications.  Many non-military manufacturers have discovered that obtaining optimum performance from their product is directly linked to its cleanliness.  The process of eliminating contamination to this standard is known as Precision Cleaning.

3 Tips

PTI Precision Cleaning expert Chuck Osborn offers these 3 Tips for Eliminating Contamination in Aerospace Components:

  1. During the initial phases of manufacturing, you should start off with a Cleanability study. Look at the part from the standpoint of “will we [or someone else] be able to clean out the foreign object debris (FOD) we are going to generate in making it”.
  2. To achieve highest levels of cleanliness on a finished component, it is critical that these components have in-process cleaning done to them throughout the entire manufacturing cycle.  Our research and studies have shown that not all manufacturing debris can be removed during a single Precision Cleaning process at the very end of the cycle.
  3. If you are using water based machining coolants during the manufacturing process, make sure that you flush it out of internal passageways and off of external surfaces immediately after each machining operation. Water based coolants have a tendency to gel and trap FOD in the part, making it extremely difficult to remove.

Learn More

If you have any questions about how our Precision Cleaning specialized processes can eliminate contamination in your critical aerospace components, or would like more information on any of our other specialized processes, please contact us using the form on the right.