Aerospace & Defense Technology - April 2022 - 10

Aerospace Materials
in reliable capex, the differentiation is
in everything else, which is much more
variable. " he said. According to Jyot, the
variable outcomes largely result from
human factors. The manufacturing sector
has seen a huge decline in interest
generationally. The end of the cold war
brought on some of the changes because
it led to higher interest by younger
workers in service and software oriented
activities. The lack of interest in manufacturing
careers produces labor constraints.
Machining
Beryllium
L.A. Gauge Company inspects each beryllium part multiple times during the manufacturing process.
(Image: Douglas Gates)
Even in the case of repeat orders, " We
might have made these parts for many
years, but we still will prove out the program
and the set-up with an aluminum
piece to make sure the machine has
been set up and zeroed out correctly, "
said Jyot Bawa, President. Again, the
full beryllium batch is run only after a
single beryllium test piece is machined
and inspected. " That's how inefficient
we have to be to run these parts because
we can't have any errors across an entire
batch, " Jyot Bawa said, " The raw material
is too expensive. "
Use of 5-axis machining lessens some
of the inefficiencies of L.A. Gauge's
methodical beryllium machining process.
A 5-axis machine enables multiple
operations to be completed in one
setup. However, Jyot Bawa said, " It is
particularly risky to combine multiple
operations into one at the final stage of
operations. We must have a reliable
machine that we can trust to combine
the operations and ultimately offset
some of the excess costs. We can't really
depend on many machine tool brands
to run such critical operations in one
setup. With machines other than our
10
Mitsui Seiki 5-axis machines we would
have to break down the setup and make
sure that each operation is done separately,
just to make sure that repeatability
is there. This approach is very
expensive. "
Capital Spending
L.A. Gauge's largest capital equipment
investments have been in the Mitsui
Seiki machines and Zeiss coordinate
measuring machines (CMMs). " They've
been very important for credibility with
our customers, " Jyot Bawa said. " But the
equipment mainly gives us tremendous
capacity and capability across a very
wide variety of parts. Remember, we
don't have any product lines. We provide
reliability in production of complex
parts that other companies will
turn away. So given that, these are natural
choices for investment. "
Jyot Bawa said a traditional perspective
on manufacturing companies concentrates
on capital equipment because
the manufacturing business model is
categorized as a high-operating leverage,
high fixed cost enterprise. " Now
that we're able to make the investments
www.aerodefensetech.com
L.A. Gauge combines cautious
machining practices with proprietary
strategies to prevent cracks from propagating
in beryllium parts. The strategies
include frequent tool changes, even
when the tool is not obviously worn.
Memo Olmedo, director of operations,
said, " Our approaches are very careful.
It's all about quality. You only want to
make the part once. You don't want to
have to remake it because at that point
you lose money. "
Programmer Jesus Moreno said
machining beryllium requires special
programming techniques. " If you
don't program it correctly or if you go
too fast or too heavy on the depth of
cut it will actually break the part. "
Moreno said the machining tolerances
usually are tight: 0.0005 " to 0.0001 " to
even 0.00005 " for some final tolerances.
" Luckily, we have 5-axis machines
that can hold the 0.00005 " tolerance, "
he said. He added that the Mastercam
software he uses offers features such as
multi-axis surfacing and the ability to
validate toolpaths and help avoid
crashes.
Gauge Analytics
Because the shop's product mix is
constantly changing, planning and
forecasting is extremely complex. A
cyclical data analysis system that L.A.
Gauge calls Gauge Analytics is at the
heart of the company's planning and
forecasting process.
Gauge Analytics involves coordination
and customization across many
different disciplines, including the company's
ERP system, its shop simulation
system, and its machine monitoring
Aerospace & Defense Technology, April 2022
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Aerospace & Defense Technology - April 2022

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