Automated manufacture, productivity and profitability in the global aerospace industry

Citation

(2006), "Automated manufacture, productivity and profitability in the global aerospace industry", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 78 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2006.12778bab.014

Automated manufacture, productivity and profitability in the global aerospace industry

Automated manufacture, productivity and profitability in the global aerospace industry

Keywords: Aerospace industry, Manufacturing, Automation

Aimed at leading international aerospace manufacturers and their supply chain partners, a new British joint-venture company has recently been formed to help address changes in the industry and accelerate the drive to find more efficient ways to produce airframe structures.

The new company, called HYTRI, offers a range of technical consultancy services, backed up by the proven ability to design, make and implement complex special purpose machinery and automation systems for the aerospace industry.

The HYTRI initiative is the result of a formal collaboration between Hyde Group Ltd, thought to be the world's largest, privately owned aerospace tooling design and manufacturing group, and AMTRI Ltd, an engineering company that possesses a distinguished record of providing advanced research and advisory services, production machinery and robotic systems to manufacturing industries in the UK and world-wide, including the aerospace sector.

According to the two founders, HYTRI will address the growing need in the aerospace industry for a specialist and agile resource that will be able to meet the rapid changes taking place, especially in the use of both new and conventional construction materials and related manufacturing processes. The company believes aerospace manufacturers will increasingly turn to external contractors that possess the appropriate knowledge and skills.

“The aerospace industry is rapidly adopting advanced new materials and construction methods such as the use of reinforced composites. To fabricate and manufacture these complex airframe structures will require new approaches to design and manufacture”, said Stuart Wilson, managing director of Hyde Group, the company that is a co- founder of HYTRI.

“In addition, as airframe structures become more sophisticated, skilled labour is becoming harder to recruit”, he said. “With greater global competition, the industry has to become much more productive and efficient. Against this scenario, automation will play an increasingly important role in delivering faster, reliable and consistent results and making production more profitable.”

A particular example, he said, is where modern airframe manufacture involves the automated drilling and assembly of large semi-flexible structures. Local positional accuracy, the alignment of holes and the rapid insertion of fasteners are some of the key requirements. Automated systems are now able to provide effective solutions to these challenges.

Together, Hyde Group and AMTRI have already developed sophisticated automated solutions to meet the demands. Since 1995 the two companies have collaborated and the result is a close professional relationship based on a number of ground-breaking automation projects, jointly undertaken for major aerospace and other manufacturers.

The success of these projects led to the establishment of HYTRI. Hyde Group's Stuart Wilson said: “After many successful years working together it is our pleasure to co-operate with AMTRI and launch HYTRI. We look forward to new business developments, which will focus on next generation manufacturing within the aerospace industry and help validate the new company as a global resource for aerospace automation”.

For AMTRI, managing director Phil Sholl explained: “We are delighted to join with Hyde Group and form HYTRI. For potential clients, AMTRI brings to the collaboration a wealth of specialist experience and knowledge in research, coupled to the development and delivery of highly automated and complex systems and related technologies, for some of the most important names in the European aerospace industry”. The new company is based at Macclesfield.