He said the finished product is infinitely stronger than a 3D modeled product , which is key for the aerospace industry .
The company is broken out into two main buildings — metals ( 30,000 square feet ) and plastics ( 80,000 square feet ). On the metals side , Lee said they have some big horizontal machining centers , which can produce parts up to 50 inches long . On the plastics side , they can produce up to 48 inches . He said they have machinery for both large parts — injection molded for the aircraft — and small parts the size of a pinky finger . The largest part produced by Tool Gauge for Boeing is a ceiling cove and the smallest part is about the size of a dime , such as a plug or cover .
They also have new lathes that can run 24 / 7 that employ robots to pick and pull an item off the lathe , clean it , run it through a chemical wash , and box it . Lee said that the perception of robots taking away work from people has changed .
Most people now realize that robots are doing work that people don ’ t necessarily want to do anyway .
He added , “ We were initially worried about bringing robots into the workplace , but everyone loves working with the robots and it gives us better quality .”
They ’ ve even named the robots “ The Mountain ” and “ Tyrion ” — both are Game of Thrones character references .
Lee said , “ It ’ s the manufacturing engineers that set up the robots and get them going . I ’ ve never heard anyone say , ‘ Let ’ s get rid of the robots .’” He said mostly people say , “ I love working with this robot and it makes my job much easier .”
28 NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS