Aerobraze Engineered Technologies Oklahoma City has been awarded a five-year contract with the United States Air Force (USAF) for the remanufacture of F-16 fighter aircraft regenerative heat exchangers at Tinker Air Force Base. Located in Oklahoma, Tinker Air Force Base is the headquarters of the Air Force Materiel Command’s (AFMC) Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center (OC-ALC), which manages aircraft, engines, missiles and more. Aerobraze Oklahoma City specializes in the remanufacture and overhaul of F-16 Inconel and aluminum heat exchangers. Assemblies meet stringent U.S. military requirements, including extreme temperatures, to resist cracking and failure over long-time use. These processes have resulted in efficiency and significant cost savings to maintain and extend the life of F-16 operations.

The Government of Canada invested over $9 million in aerospace manufacturer Cyclone Manufacturing Inc. This investment, through the Aerospace Regional Recovery Initiative, will help Mississauga-based Cyclone expand all four of its facilities in Ontario in order to become more productive and competitive. The expansions will include a heat-treatment oven at its Milton facility and a temperature-controlled production area at one of its three Mississauga facilities. These improvements will allow Cyclone to become more productive and competitive while allowing the company to add more environmentally friendly technologies. This project will support 110 jobs in the region and enhance Cyclone’s ability to create new and larger parts.

There was a big announcement out of West Virginia in September that you may have missed. It was particularly big news for the aerospace industry.

GKN Aerospace acquired Swedish additive-manufacturing system business Permanova Lasersystem AB as part of its goal to transform its supply chain and offer more sustainable and advanced material solutions. Permanova Lasersystem, based in Gothenburg, provides advanced laser technology and currently supplies laser welding and laser metal deposition systems to GKN Aerospace. The acquisition will strengthen GKN Aerospace’s additive fabrication, accelerate large-scale AM industrialization and enable future business growth. According to GKN Aerospace, additive manufacturing reduces material and energy usage by up to 80% compared to traditional manufacturing techniques.

Aerobraze Engineered Technologies Oklahoma City has been awarded a five-year contract with the United States Air Force (USAF). The contract includes the overhaul/remanufacture of F-15 fighter aircraft tubular heat exchangers and C-130 heat exchangers at the Tinker Air Force Base. Based in Oklahoma, Tinker Air Force Base is the headquarters of the Air Force Materiel Command’s (AFMC) Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center (OC-ALC), which manages aircraft, engines, missiles and more.

Nitrex Vacuum Furnaces shipped a large vertical vacuum furnace to an engine MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) company in South America. The company repairs jet engines, components and integrated systems for commercial and military aircraft. The vacuum furnace was ordered to expand production capacity, modernize the company’s plant, and meet quality standards and accreditations. The furnace was ordered from Nitrex’s GM Enterprises division, which was acquired by Nitrex in 2020 and now operates under the Nitrex Vacuum Furnaces name. It is designed for vertical bottom-loading applications and is suited for processing high-stacked loads and larger and taller workpieces, such as aircraft engine components. The company will use the furnace for annealing and stress relieving.

A high-pressure fluid cell press from Quintus Technologies will boost efficiencies and lower production costs for Thailand’s Jinpao Precision Industry, a manufacturer of structural sheet metal and machined parts. The Flexform press will be used for forming aerospace parts for airplanes and helicopters. It has a work area measuring 27.6 x 73 inches (700 mm x 1,800 mm), which can accommodate 90% of the forming parts requested by Jinpao’s customers. Operating at a forming pressure of 1,400 bar (20,000 psi), the fluid cell press is suited to applications requiring close-tolerance parts with little or no need for secondary hand work.

A manufacturer based in China ordered a horizontal vacuum furnace from SECO/WARWICK. It will help produce highly specialized cast parts used in the aerospace industry. The furnace, which has a graphite chamber and gas quenching system, has a heating zone measuring 59 x 59 x 70 inches (1,500 x 1,500 x 1,800 mm) and can handle loads of precision cast parts up to 6,615 pounds (3,000 kg). The furnace is scheduled for delivery in June.

This article looks at ways our means of transportation – how we get from here to there – are heat treated. We start with aerospace and then consider vehicular transportation followed by manual propulsion.

SECO/WARWICK will deliver a vacuum furnace to a European manufacturer of heavy equipment. The furnace, which has workspace dimensions of 600 x 600 x 900 mm, will be used for hardening and tempering processes for steel. Its design has been customized in order to meet the demands of a dedicated thermal process used in the production of aircraft landing gear. SECO/WARWICK engineers fitted the furnace with a non-standard system for sub-quenching with liquid nitrogen, which enables the required quick cool-down of landing-gear components.