Able Aerospace Doubles In-House Machining Department Capacity
Leading component repair and overhaul provider Able Aerospace Services, a Textron Aviation Inc. company, recently grew its business capabilities and doubled the bandwidth of its machining department by adding new equipment for large-scale part repair work.
The new machining equipment is part of an overall growth effort by the company – including the completion of a brand new, 60,000-square-foot facility expansion in late 2019 – to position itself to serve new product line opportunities. The equipment upgrades include a state-of-the-art machining center, new next-gen lathe and mill technologies, and enhanced state-of-the-art grinding capabilities.
“These machines add significant capacity to our repair pipeline. They also allow Able to service new sizes and categories of parts, including full helicopter transmission cases and large-scale commercial fixed-wing components,” said Michael Vercio, general manager of Able Aerospace Services. “The expanded capabilities allow us to complete a larger range of repairs in house and offer improved efficiency to our customers.”
The capability represents a new generation of sophistication, to which Able has added even more accuracy packages to repair and inspect parts requiring highly tight tolerances. This includes automating Able’s component repair and overhaul (CR&O) process to now support parts weighing up to 4,000 pounds (2,000 kg) and measuring up to 80 inches (2,000 mm) in length. It also accounts for an envelope size big enough to service large category helicopter transmissions and large-scale fixed-wing parts for commercial and military applications.
The expanded Able machining department is now fully operational and processing repairs. It joins a 260,000-square-foot Able headquarters facility that offers more than 10,000 FAA-approved fixed- and rotor-wing repair, overhaul and parts solutions, and a team of more than 450 aerospace experts who successfully process more than 95 percent of all jobs on-site.
