IBC Advanced Alloys Corp. executives report that the company’s wholly owned US subsidiary, IBC Engineered Materials Corp. is in the final stages of a materials and production qualification process with Lockheed Martin's F-35 Electro-Optical Targeting System (EOTS) team based in Orlando, Fla.
IB-EMC is working directly with Lockheed Martin's F-35 EOTS engineering, design and quality teams to develop specific components to demonstrate the technical and commercial viability of the company's proprietary Beralcast alloys as effective alternatives to improve lead time and affordability of high performance aerospace components made from beryllium aluminum alloys. As a part of the project, IB-EMC has completed several advanced prototype castings which are being used to evaluate Beralcast alloys and castings for several critical structural and sub-system aerospace components.
The current first phase initiative is to conduct studies of Beralcast alloys for use on specific optical components on Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II aircraft. This collaboration with Lockheed Martin is also allowing IBC to demonstrate its expertise and industry leadership in offering rapid prototyping and advanced materials solutions to provide investment cast parts to aerospace customers with short lead time and competitive pricing requirements.
"IBC Engineered Materials is excited to be collaborating with Lockheed Martin and believe we will demonstrate the viability of our Beralcast alloys and cast components as mechanically compliant and cost effective components for the F-35 Lightning II program," said Ray White, president of IB-EMC. "We hope that IBC's partnership and collaboration with Lockheed Martin will advance the potential for our engineered materials products for other aerospace industry initiatives where modulus, weight and cost are important design criteria."
Beralcast alloys can be used in virtually any high performance application requiring complex, lightweight, and high-stiffness parts and can be substituted for aluminum, magnesium, titanium, metal matrix composites as well as pure beryllium or powder metallurgy beryllium-aluminum. Beralcast's principal alloys are more than three times stiffer than aluminum with 22% less weight and can be precision-cast for simple and complex three-dimensional stability. These high modulus alloys are ideal for high performance industrial and high tech components as well as for a wide range of aerospace applications, according to the manufacturer.
IBC is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with production facilities in Indiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Missouri.
Source: IBC