Northwest Aerospace News April | May Issue No.14 | Page 69

PACIFIC NORTHWEST AEROSPACE ALLIANCE SPOTLIGHT What successes has Technical Tooling had so far? While many of the examples of Technical Tooling’s work are cov- ered by NDA’s, we can talk about some of their successes. One such story comes from a client who had a unique job that required machining Inconel (an austenitic nickel-chromium-based superalloy that is a trademark of Special Metals Corporation). What made this job unique was that the material needed to be machined in a way that required the CNC to be held upside down, a task that the client tried multiple different ways, and Vacu-Grip ended up being the solution that provided enough holding strength to accomplish the feat. With its negligible thermal expansion and cost savings this material could likely become in the near future, the competitive advantage for composite tooling companies in the industry. The cost savings is worth spend- ing a little time exploring. What makes this material a savings is its ability to be formed to near net shape, almost like a form of additive manufacturing, resulting in minimal material waste. Ad- ditionally, the tool itself can be formed in a fraction of the time it takes to form tools out of other comparable materials, making it especially ideal for job shops and prototyping. On the LM side of the world with the 8000 Series material, one of the biggest success stories has been assisting a customer to re- duce lead time from approximate- ly three months to one and a half weeks. This is possible because with the 8000 Series, Technical Tooling is able to cast to near net shape and cut out the process of The goal is to give engineers creating a master pattern, pulling a and designers an option that mold, and then creating the tool. provides the same mechanical advantages as Invar, at a much What does the future hold for lower expense. Oftentimes it is Technical Tooling? not cost efficient to make a tool out of Invar for a small batch of The team at Technical Tooling product, be it for prototyping or has a plethora of possibilities in limited run. So with 8000 Series front of them. In addition to the material from Technical Tooling, work they are already doing, a big rock that’s being moved as we there is a cost-effective alterna- tive that allows them to produce speak is providing education and limited run tooling without the awareness to OEM’s and Tier 1 providers about the capabilities of great expense of manufacturing that tool out of a block of Invar. 8000 Series. What does all of this mean for your business? So how does this translate to you? Savings. If your company uses workholding systems in its manufacturing process, or if you are doing lay-up molds, there are savings available in exploring this new, better, faster, more cost-effective set of products. But don’t just take my word for it; Technical Tooling has data collected from trials on both their own materials and other raw materials tested for mechanical failure points. They’ve spent a lot of time collecting this data and have white papers available depending on the potential cus- tomer’s needs. If you’re interested in exploring the possible solutions Technical Tooling could provide to your manufacturing process, connect with Zach and/or Jake through their website at https://www. technicaltooling.com/ 1118 East D Street Tacoma, WA 98421 Phone: [phone] [email protected] https://www.technicaltooling.com APRIL | MAY 2020 ISSUE NO. 14 69