A major, independent manufacturer in Europe with locations across the globe including North America, has invested in a high-pressure fluid cell press from Quintus Technologies, in order to support its role in the Airbus wide-body aircraft program.
Mecahers Aeronauticas Setúbal, Portugal facility installed a new 800bar Flexform press, which is going to be an important tool in the fabrication of components to meet Airbus capacity ramp-up.
Our Setúbal facility, in AICEP Global Parques Bluebiz Parque, is Macahers center of excellence for hard metal sheet fabrications and complex assemblies, concentrating in particular on hard aluminum, stainless steel, and titanium in the forming area, said Patrick Razat, the president of Mecahers Group. We expect the high-pressure forming process will allow us to both reduce the fabrication steps required and to minimize the need for costly hand corrections, he explained.
The added value of the high-pressure process allows Tier 1 sheet metal parts suppliers to meet the quality, volume, and cost demands of major Aerospace OEMs like Airbus, added Jan Söderström, CEO of Quintus Technologies. We see the same trend all over the western world, where primarily Airbus, Boeing and Bombardier are forcing the supply chain to move away from a relatively high dependency on well-trained and skilled labour at the shop floor to a higher level of forming die design, combined with modern high-pressure forming technologies.”
Image courtesy of Aerospace Manufacturing