Using All of Compass’s Resources to Keep Aerospace Project On Track
Compass prides itself in its ability to handle difficult projects, the so called “tough stuff”. These projects often involve machining complicated geometries, maintaining exceptionally tight tolerances, working with difficult-to-machine materials, and/or creating highly smooth surfaces. But sometimes, the complication arises from schedule pressures and impossibly short leadtimes.
Every successful company has its “war stories”, that is, narratives shared within the organization, and sometimes with outsiders, that describe heroic events and accomplishments made in the face of severe adversity. Compass recently had such an experience. It involved a brand new A&D customer who came to Compass with an emergency need for a large aluminum structural part. The customer’s incumbent vendor had been trying to deliver the project, unsuccessfully, for many months. Here is the story of this effort, done through the combined efforts of Quality Products and Gray Manufacturing, as told by VP of Sales Jim Miller:
“The inquiry arrived out of the blue from an A&D customer we had never supplied. It came through the Compass website. The aluminum part they needed was larger than anything we had ever done. The component measured about 57 inches by 43 inches by 3 inches. And they needed it in 2 ½ weeks ARO.
The largest CNC mill we have is Quality Products’ Haas VF-11. It has a working envelope of 120 inches by 40 inches by 30 inches. With significant support from Chris Adkins (above photo, right), an experienced CNC programmer and manufacturing engineer from sister company Gray Manufacturing, we devised a plan to machine the part in four operations. We planned to work 24×7 until the part was finished. Mo Ashraf (left) and Minh Hong (second from right), two of Quality Products’ best machinist, volunteered to run the job. If we had a machine with a larger envelope, we could have done it in two ops.
We started Op 1 on a Monday, a week after receiving the order and the day we received material. Our customer needed one part right away. Our expected cycle time was about 175 hours to whittle an 800 pound block of aluminum down to the final part weight of 40 pounds. We geared up to work around the clock, with the promise of shipping the part 11 days later.
Disaster struck shortly after midnight Tuesday morning. Twelve hours into Op 1, the spindle of our machine malfunctioned. We were successful in shutting the machine down without damaging the work piece. But lacking another machine large enough for this part, we were dead in the water. Later that morning, we were able to locate a replacement spindle in California and arranged for it to be flown ASAP to Quality Products.
The new spindle arrived Friday morning, two days later than expected. Fortunately, the install went smoothly and by Saturday evening we were able to resume Op 1. We worked through the night and finished up Op 1 late Sunday evening. First thing Monday morning, we refixtured the workpiece and started Op 2. We finished Op 2 Wednesday evening and immediately moved onto Op 3. Similarly, Op 3 was complete on Friday and Op 4 began. The Quality Products and Gray Manufacturing team worked through the night to complete the part by Saturday morning.
That morning, 12 calendar days after machining began and 19 days after receiving the order, we were ready for outside processing and final QC. A penetrant inspection vendor, who was on standby, came in Saturday afternoon and completed this testing. Unfortunately, Quality’s Zeiss CMM was not large enough to check the part.
On Sunday morning, Bill Canning, Compass’s VP & COO who spearheaded the project, delivered the part to Gray Manufacturing’s facility located thirty miles from Quality. At Gray, Operations Manager Evan Grose (second from left) dimensionally inspected the part on a larger Zeiss CMM using a program he had written. We had a good part that only required one more outside processing step.
The following morning, the part was transported to a local vendor where the last processing step was completed. The part was brought back to Quality Products and final inspection was done. Tuesday morning, the next day, the customer picked up the completed component.
A few days later, we were invited to visit the customer’s facility where we learned our part had passed every incoming inspection requirement. Even with the equipment malfunction that delayed our delivery by nearly 5 days, we were able to deliver a large and complicated part, manufactured for the first time, in 22 calendar days and allow our customer to stay on schedule. The customer was delighted and assured us we would be receiving significant additional work.
Hat’s off to the incredible around-the-clock effort made by Bill. Evan, Chris, Mo, and Minh. I ‘ve never seen anything like it, and I’ve been in contract manufacturing for almost 30 years. It’s an amazing feeling to be part of an organization capable of rising to the challenge and pulling off nearly impossible projects.”
For more information about this project, or to inquire about using Compass’s resources for other challenging machining or fabrication projects, please contact Jim Miller directly at jim.miller@compassprecision.com.