The future of the aerospace fasteners market looks lighter and stronger, thanks to engineering innovation by Sky Climber Fasteners, with designs that are quickly outmoding many commonly used aerospace fasteners.

1) Design engineers continue to seek lightweight fastener options, using materials such as aluminum, aluminum alloys, plastics such as PEI and PEEK, titanium, carbon fiber, stainless and carbon steel, nickel, and nickel-chromium. While aluminum and plastics weigh less, they typically lack the strength of steel versions. Most lightweight fasteners have considerable flaws that limit their safe use.

2) The key to circumventing these weaknesses is using engineering innovations to develop new designs without the weight of steel, the expense of titanium, or limits of adhesives or lock wire. Sky Climber Fasteners is at the forefront of fastener engineering innovation, with products that are outperforming these fastener types and establishing a new generation in aerospace hardware.

3) The Rhino Hybrid Nut™ from Sky Climber Fasteners shatters aerospace fastener standards by combining lightweight materials with patent-pending locking or non-locking inserts. Combining these elements has yielded incredibly high strength-to-weight ratios and a slew of other benefits:

• 50-cycle lock-torque performance in all materials with no crimping, adhesives mean fastener is reusable without significant change in lock torque performance
• Some designs permit torqueing to specific values, locking in place every time
• Eliminates FOD
• Less expensive than titanium
• 30,000-cycle vibration test certified
• Can eliminate expensive, dangerous coatings such as silver plate, cadmium
• Chromate-free
• Requires no special installation tools

4) More impressive, though, are the tensile and torque results demonstrated during quality testing. The Rhino Aluminum Nut™ has exhibited significant advantages of strength, torque, and torque consistency when supplied as locknuts with the locking inserts. Aluminum nuts have not historically been available with locking torques certified to 15-cycles, proving that the Rhino Aluminum Lock Nut™ represents a significant advancement in fastener design.

• Tensile strength 23% greater than steel based on NASM25027 requirements
• Nearly double the wrench torque required by NASM25027 standards for steel
• Less than half the weight of steel alternatives

5) Rhino Lock Nuts™ with patented locking inserts deliver unprecedented strength in Hybrid and Aluminum versions and are available now from Sky Climber Fasteners. With this fastener and its family of designs, Sky Climber Fasteners is establishing a new generation in high-performance aerospace hardware.

Sky Climber Fasteners LLC
740.816.9830

info@skyclimberfasteners.com

Rapid-fire facts

• First flight: Planned for 2020
• Role: Develop electric aircraft certification standards
• Developed from Tecnam P2006T
• Primary user: NASA

Specifications:

• Wingspan (Mod. IV): 32.8ft (10.0m)
• Length: 28.5ft (8.7m)
• Height: 9.3ft (2.8m)
• Cruise speed: 172mph (at 8,000ft)
• Motors: 12 high-lift x 19.3hp (14.4kW); 2 cruise x 64.5hp (48.1kW)

OCTOBER 2019 Winner

Brian Pekarek,
Staff Mechanical Engineer,
Leonardo DRS/Electro Optical Infrared Systems,
Dallas, Texas

How long have you been in the aerospace business? 35 years

How did you become interested in aircraft? In my childhood, I closely followed the Apollo program, which led me into mechanical engineering for my college degree. My first employer after college (Texas Instruments) had a flying club. They taught me how to fly, and I obtained my private pilot’s license.

What is your favorite aircraft and why? For its simplicity and economy of operation, the Cessna 152.

Runners up

Wayne Corrigan, Director of Maintenance Training, FlightSafety Int'l, Downsview, Ontario, Canada

Scott Homerding, Manufacturing Engineer Paradigm Precision - Machining N. America Tempe, Arizona

Submission Procedure

To enter the contest, visit https://www.AerospaceManufacturingAndDesign.com/form/namethatplane/ and fill out the provided entry form. Only completed forms will qualify. A full set of rules is provided.

The entry deadline for this issue’s contest is Feb.28, 2020.Winners will be announced in the April 2020 issue.

Have fun, and good luck!

No one predicted the grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX fleet a year ago. Or that Boeing’s best-selling narrow-body airliner would not return to service for at least a year, maybe more. However, there is certainty that a lot of effort is going toward putting the 737 MAX back in the air – from the manufacturer, regulators, and airlines. Only the exact timetable is unclear. This uncertainty makes a forecast for 2020 problematic, but I am optimistic the plane will be recertified this year and the U.S. commercial aerospace sector will endure this temporary upheaval.

Reasons include new management at Boeing (see page 10). New President & CEO David Calhoun’s first email to employees stressed “taking steps to maintain our supply chain and workforce expertise so we’re ready to restart production.”

Boeing is reassigning 3,000 workers to other jobs as it halts production of the 737 MAX jet. Meanwhile, Spirit AeroSystems – which supplies about 70% of the 737’s structure – is furloughing 2,800 employees with two months’ pay. Since Boeing has already compensated five major airlines hundreds of millions of dollars in total for financial losses incurred by the 737 MAX grounding, it makes sense that Boeing management should consider sharing the burden with a principal supplier to help maintain its workforce beyond that period. Just days before Calhoun took over, Spirit AeroSystems President and CEO Tom Gentile stated in a press release, “We continue to work with Boeing to develop a new production schedule for 2020 with an eye toward minimizing disruption, maintaining the stability of our production capabilities.”

Minimizing disruption and maintaining supply chain stability is a stated Boeing goal, so maybe Calhoun’s promise that “Boeing must keep innovating to succeed” includes supporting a supplier for which the 737 MAX represents more than 50% of its annual revenue? Boeing’s position as the world’s largest aerospace company, a top U.S. exporter, and anchor in the Dow Jones Industrial Average calls for innovative thinking. And consider the 737 MAX backlog, valued at $500 billion.

While Boeing’s woes dominate the headlines, the company retains a six-year backlog on its 777 widebodies. There is other good news, noted on Aerospace Manufacturing and Design’s news pages in January.

Airbus is increasing the production rate of A320 family aircraft at its U.S. manufacturing facility in Mobile, Alabama, by the beginning of 2021. The company also will add 275 jobs for the A220 assembly line opening this year and construct an additional support hangar on the site.

The U.S. government ordered 50 more Lockheed Martin C-130J transports, worth $3.4 billion. And Lockheed Martin continues to ramp up production of the F-35 fighter – with its 1,500+ global suppliers and more than $44.2 billion total economic impact – increasing 2019 output by 50 units from the year before. The defense giant plans to deliver at least the same number of F-35s this year (141 jets) and increase production to reach a peak in 2023.

So, despite one platform’s challenges, aerospace manufacturing’s broader outlook remains promising. – Eric

The high-precision Nakamura-Tome MX-100 multitasking machining center offers high productivity milling and turning. Features include advanced software, 15hp upper tool spindle and turning capability, and a milling turret that offers 12 tool stations with 24 indexing positions.

The MX-100 is well-suited for high-mix, short-lot production of aerospace parts. A compact design maximizes floor space, while heavy-duty construction includes a rigid-design casting and 37,200 lb column – 30% heavier than other machines in its class.

A PC-based 19" SmartX touchscreen works with the Fanuc 31i-B5 control.

Smart features include the NT Work Navigator that recognizes coordinates of machine parts with non-round shapes – such as those in forgings and castings – eliminating the need for positioning fixtures and clamping devices. The included Advanced NT Nurse System software package supports operation, programming, and production. Functions include phase recognition (key for multitasking), direct chucking, and precise synchronization of the left-hand/right-hand spindles. Additional functions include a load monitor for identifying tool wear/breakage, tool life management, and machine monitoring.

A standard electronic-detector safety feature reduces the impact and force of a machine collision. Should a crash occur, servo motor-feeding direction reverses, and the machine stops within 4 milliseconds.

Methods Machine Tools Inc.