To Infinity and Beyond
National Qualpec has helped to reach for the stars, by providing critical thin wall components for an antenna assembly that will be mounted on spacecraft traveling throughout our solar system. The missions will include trips to Mars, Venus, and the Sun. Our skilled machinists have been able to develop new and cost effective techniques for thin wall machining of aluminum components to meet the needs of an aerospace manufacturer providing satellite and spacecraft components to NASA.

A great challenge in manufacturing very thin walled components is in building cost effective fixtures that will support the components during machining and minimizing heat build up in the material that will affect the accuracy and tolerances of the components after completion. To further challenge our team, the timeline to produce these components was measured in days not weeks.

Thin wall machining is always a tradeoff of speed versus accuracy. To cost effectively manufacture these components, they must be produced as quickly as possible and with a minimum of custom fixtures. To achieve the quality required for an application as demanding as space exploration, accuracy and stability throughout the manufacturing process must be the first priority. Our toolmakers were able to develop robust support fixtures that stabilized the components during machining and dissipated heat to prevent variation in wall thicknesses due to expansion.