Arcadia Aerospace Industries Signs Multi-Year Agreement With GKN Aerospace
Arcadia Aerospace Industries, LLC is pleased to announce the signing of a long-term partnership agreement with GKN Aerospace (Tallassee, AL) to provide Nondestructive Inspection of large composite airframe components.
Online, May 13, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Arcadia Aerospace Industries (AAI) and GKN Aerospace have worked closely together across several aircraft programs for the last five years. Charles Bushman, President and founder of Arcadia Aerospace expressed, "The partnership with GKN strengthens our commitment to the aerospace industry to provide value added solutions to the increasingly more complex structures emerging. Together, we have unique synergies to provide the industry with unparalleled composite expertise in large structures fabrication and inspection." Additionally, the two companies have been preparing for the design and implementation of a 'Center for Composites Manufacturing Excellence' located just outside Montgomery, AL. High-performance composite technology has become the airframe material of choice in the industry today due to weight reduction and heightened performance for both military and commercial aircraft.
In support of this effort, Arcadia Aerospace is developing a new facility strategically located in proximity to GKN Aerospace in Tallassee, Alabama, less than three hours from the new Airbus Final Assembly Line in the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley. Once completed, the facility will be Nadcap accredited for Nondestructive Inspection in addition to a FAA approved repair facility servicing both metal and composite manufacturers. The new facility, scheduled to be production ready mid-year 2014, will be the inspection rate-readiness site for new composites intensive programs.
The new state-of-the-art facility will house the nation's largest, multiple technology, automated robotic inspection system. The system, designed and fabricated by Arcadia's engineering team, boasts the ability to provide internal defect and external dimensional inspections of components to 90 feet in length and 14 feet in width. Delivering a total of 19-axes of motion working in high-speed synchronization, the system provides conventional ultrasonic, linear array, thermographic, and digital x-ray inspection technologies for the detection of internal defects. In addition, the new facility will house AAI's next generation of automated overhead gantry inspection systems capable of handling round product over 14 feet in diameter.
About Arcadia Aerospace Industries:
Based in Southwest Florida at the City of Punta Gorda Airport, AAI's divisions occupy over 60,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing high-bay and office space including a captive CNC machine and fabrication facility. Since AAI's inception in 2008, the company has been propelled through the Aerospace industry by its innovative approach to customer service, providing composite airframe manufacturers solutions to their nondestructive inspection applications. The majority of components the company assists with are large complex components considered 'fracture critical structure'.
Arcadia Aerospace engineering teams and composite experts provide commercial, business jet, and military aircraft manufacturers access to several solutions platforms. Some of the company's varied products include the high level analysis or qualification of NDT methods on programs, deployment of processes on the manufacturing floor, design and manufacturing of specialized tooling, handling equipment and complex machinery that performs the critical analysis on customer programs. Over the years, the company has interrogated components on the scale of large upper and lower wing segments, complex fuselage structures, engine nacelles, flaps, stabilizers and many other control surfaces. In addition, AAI's inspection teams are certified airframe and power plant mechanics trained in composite repair and re-inspection. Arcadia Aerospace also provides long-term partnership commitments with members of its client base to provide on-going solutions for their manufacturing programs, rate-readiness plans, supply-chain management as well as all inclusive certification and approval processes.
Most recently, Arcadia Aerospace was honored as a 2013 Florida Companies to Watch Award Recipient, and additionally honored by the Manufacturers Association of Florida with the 2013 Manufacturers of the Year Award. Scheduled over the course of 2014, Arcadia Aerospace is expanding its operations to include new service provider facilities in California and Alabama.
About GKN Aerospace:
A leader in the manufacture of highly complex composite and metallic aerostructures and engine products, GKN Aerospace is one of the world's largest independent first tier suppliers to the global aviation industry. With over 100 years aerospace experience, GKN harnesses considerable knowledge and advanced manufacturing technologies to supply high-value, integrated assemblies for aerostructures and engine products as well as glass, acrylic and polycarbonate transparency systems.
Substantial investment ensures GKN Aerospace is at the forefront of technology delivering real and practical benefits to its customers. Partnering with the world's major airframers and engine OEMs, GKN delivers a competitive advantage through advanced design and manufacturing that provides best value and enhanced performance: advantages which retain its position as a world leader in aerostructures, engine systems, nacelles and transparencies.