World-leading Aerospace machining competence

Starrag’s undisputed world lead in providing machining solutions for the aerospace sector is underpinned by the company’s Aerospace and Turbine Competence Center in Switzerland – an initiative that showcases the group’s long-established expertise in the manufacture of turbine blades, blisks and structural components.

Starrag has an established vast and diverse knowledge of machining aerospace parts and now, at the group’s Swiss HQ, visitors to a dedicated 2,000 m² hall can see and witness the capabilities of Starrag’s world-class machining centres – both the Ecospeed and STC models for aerostructures alongside a NB model for blisk machining and a LX blade machine.

These are used to test and optimise new machine processes under production conditions, usually in response to customer orders – also including manufacturing solutions for vanes, impellers, casings, gearboxes, turbine housings and landing gear components.

Details of all these machines – and a ‘teaser’ into a soon-to-be-announced new development for the machining of titanium workpieces – will be available to visitors to the Swiss Pavilion at the Paris-Bourget Airport show, alongside a display of typical smaller parts handled by Starrag machines and videos of solutions for the aerospace industry.

“Importantly,” says Starrag UK’s Director for Sales and Applications, Lee Scott, “visitors to our stand in the Swiss Pavilion will also be able to learn how the Starrag Group (and, by definition, its machine users) are ideally positioned to embrace any and every new manufacturing strategy as the global aircraft industry readily adopts electric propulsion.

“We’re really looking forward to aligning ourselves with aircraft OEMs and companies in all supply tiers to fulfil the burgeoning amount of manufacturing opportunities that electric propulsion offers,” he continues.

“As a group, Starrag has historically always embraced such levels of progress – for example, Industrie 4.0 and the VDMA (German Engineering Association) Blue Competence strategy, as well as making our entire machine/system product range more energy efficient through the eeMC (Energy Efficient Machining Center) initiative.

“Producing machines to meet customers’ electric propulsion machining needs will undoubtedly be the latest addition to Starrag’s sustainability achievements,” he says.

With a global customer base of companies involved in aircraft manufacture – in particular OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers throughout North America and Asia as well as Europe – Mr Scott says Starrag’s focus will, as always, continue to be on producing high-quality components in the shortest possible cycle times and at the lowest cost per part.

These demands will be achieved by, for example, multi-tasking (predominantly milling and turning) in a single set-up on machines across the Starrag product ranges including Berthiez, Bumotec, Heckert and Starrag, as well as its TTL CAM/software operation.

Importantly, he concludes, the starting point for every Starrag solution is the component, not a machine. “We vary machine configurations and machining concepts to determine the overall effect on cycle times; pushing everything to the maximum to develop an all-embracing solution that is specific to each workpiece,” he adds.

“We are not in the market to sell ‘standard’ machines; we strive to continue to be the ‘application champion’ whether on specific parts required in either low- or high-volume. Our customers have to be competitive and, likewise, we have to remain focused on delivering cost-effective and efficient solutions – time after time.”

Mr Scott is adamant that Starrag’s ‘Engineering precisely what you value’ strategy is all-embracing: “Components are increasingly becoming more complex and require more demanding machining, so we work closely with customers to also develop (and provide) special-purpose fixturing and tooling, for example.

“Nowadays you need the whole package – and it’s a philosophy which will also apply to the manufacturing demands presented to our customers by electric propulsion.”