Bridgeport VMCs help aerospace specialist to soar

Citation

(1998), "Bridgeport VMCs help aerospace specialist to soar", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 70 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.1998.12770bab.004

Bridgeport VMCs help aerospace specialist to soar

Bridgeport VMCs help aerospace specialist to soar

A massive and continuing investment in Bridgeport vertical machining centres for Inflite Engineering Services Limited's purpose-built, ultra-modern machining hall at Stansted Airport is playing a leading role in the dramatic recent growth path of this aerospace company.

With more than 40 Bridgeport machines running day and night all year-round they are making a substantial contribution towards Inflite's near £60 million annual turnover.

Established in 1983 by the present owner, Mr R.A. Stephens, the Group specialises in design, machining, fabrication, repair and surface treatment by way of an advanced sub-contract manufacturing service for the aerospace and defence industries. In spite of the demanding nature of this work, and in the face of severe competition in recent years, the companies comprising the group continue to thrive, not least through a policy of high capital investment in the most modern equipment and processes available.

New purpose-built premises for Inflite Engineering Services at Stansted Airport which houses much of the company's hi-tech engineering facilities

The splendid new engineering building opened only three years ago at London Stansted Airport, as well as new machining and fabrication facilities opened during 1997 at Stansted (Woodside) and Chadderton, Manchester, are evidence of the success Inflite is having in securing business from all areas of the defence and civil aviation field. In one department alone an entire cell comprising nine Bridgeport vertical machining centres are in 24-hour, seven days per week operation, producing a huge variety of aircraft components, many of them of great complexity and involving use of several fourth-axis options also supplied by Bridgeport. The materials being cut cover practically the whole gamut of light alloys, steels and special metals expected within the aerospace industry and all are handled with equal efficiency.

With such a high-volume throughput Inflite wisely had all the machines, which comprise a mix of VMC 760s and five of the latest VMC 1000 models, equipped with full automatic swarf handling systems and they all have the 22-tool station turret fitted.

Operator flexibility between machining centres is facilitated by standardising on the use of Heidenhain CNC controls, with the TNC 426 much in evidence. Programming is carried out both on the machines, where appropriate, and through a new DNC link system direct from the CAD room on the premises. The DNC station in the Bridgeport machining cell has a touch sensitive screen which enables a direct link to be established with any of the machines being worked and job-part packs can be instantly called up on it.

Inflite machine shop manager, Mick Spencer, says of the Bridgeports that, "They are good machines with excellent reliability and importantly, the operators like them".

Some of the components manufactured at Stansted are replacement parts for aircraft which were designed decades ago, such as the ubiquitous VC10 of the Royal Air Force. Such parts have probably never been produced as efficiently as they are now, using the latest in machine tool technology, and it would be interesting to speculate on how they might have been designed had such smart CAD/CAM facilities then been available. Other components manufactured for world class prime contractors such as British Aerospace, Rolls-Royce Aero Engines, and Mitsubishi Aerospace Systems, are themselves at the forefront of design technology but, old or new, the Bridgeport machining centres make no distinction and handle each item with equal alacrity.

Details from Bridgeport Machines Ltd. Tel: +44 (0)116 2531122; Fax: +44 (0)116 2539960.