Northwest Aerospace News August | September 2020 | Page 15

“CNC Machine Simulation detects collisions and near-misses between all machine tool components such as axis slides, heads, turrets, rotary tables, spindles, tool changers, fixtures, work pieces, cutting tools, and other user-defined objects. You can set up ‘near-miss zones’ around the components to check for close calls, and even detect over-travel errors.” Given that 60 percent of Erickson’s contracts are government-related, both foreign and domestic, having quality supplier systems in place is mission-critical. Through the commercial aviation division, they have contracts with national and state organizations in the United States, Schuldt said. He added that contracts may be inclusive of municipalities, forest services (in the U.S. and other countries), commercial logging operations, and oil and gas operations (the latter being mainly in South America). They also have sold aircraft to the governments of Italy and South Korea, directly to their firefighting agencies. AUGUST | SEPTEMBER 2020 ISSUE NO. 16 15