With the global aerospace industry poised for robust growth through to the year 2035, GF Machining Solutions’ legacy of aerospace blisk and blade manufacturing supremacy is further advanced by its international Turbine Group and evidenced by a continuing heritage of technical innovation.

Global airline passenger growth of 4.8% per year is driving the need for 40,000 new aircraft valued at USD $5.9 trillion by 2035, a historic ramp-up that raises the pressure and the stakes in aerospace component manufacturers’ quest for productivity and profitability. This is where GF Machining Solutions—a Division of GF—comes to the fore.

“As a machining technologies pioneer for more than 60 years, we have evolved to become the world’s leading provider of high-performance machines, services, software and engineering knowledge to aerospace blisk and blade manufacturers,” says GF Machining Solutions aerospace segment manager, Antoine Marty. “Our continuous technical innovation is why we are consistently the partner of choice to global aerospace leaders, including the world’s two largest aero engine manufacturers.”

The Turbine Group, established in 2016, is additional evidence of both GF Machining Solutions’ customer-centric approach and its blisk and blade manufacturing supremacy. The organisation brings together extensive turbine knowledge from across GF Machining Solutions’ worldwide organisation and capitalises on its greatest asset: a global network of its own sales and service organisations.

A single point of contact

“The Turbine Group’s mission is to deliver, for selected customers, high value-added dedicated solutions through a competent, single point of contact,” says senior project leader, Bernhard Kasper. “This mission encompasses all of our technologies to fulfil our customers’ needs and requirements and provides a premium level of service and engineering support.”

When Kasper says “all of our technologies,” he’s talking about a truly unique array of solutions: “No other company in the world can offer such a broad range of solutions: Mikron Mill solutions and Liechti airfoil machining expertise; Step-Tec Spindles; AgieCharmilles electrical discharge machining (EDM) machines, Laser texturing and Microlution micromachining solutions; additive manufacturing; System 3R software, tooling and automation; and customer services,” he says. “That means we can offer the most suitable and competitive solutions.”

All about the customers

With GF Machining Solutions, manufacturers in the risk-averse aerospace industry get the confidence of knowing that one solid, attentive partner with a continuing legacy of technical expertise and innovation is advancing their success.

“We have built up our expertise with very demanding OEMs in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, so precision manufacturing and process monitoring – which are ‘must haves’ in aerospace manufacturing – are nothing new to us,” says Kasper, whose perspective on the Division’s evolution spans 33 years, including 16 in senior management. “Precision manufacturing and process monitoring are in our DNA.”

Just as deeply embedded in GF Machining Solutions’ DNA is GF’s brand claim, “All about you.” In fact, the Turbine Group is a direct response to aerospace customers’ requests.

“When GF Machining Solutions acquired Liechti Engineering in 2015, our customers and Liechti’s customers responded very positively. At the same time, they wanted us to ensure that Liechti’s approach to service, sales and applications would not be compromised,” Kasper explains. “Those customers asked for a sales, service and application approach dedicated to their specific needs. We responded by establishing the Turbine Group. This response really proves our brand claim: we genuinely are all about our customers.”

The proof is in the solution

Proof of that approach lies in, for example, Liechti Engineering’s go-Mill 800 5-axis solution for the production of cylindrical parts, including blisks, up to 860mm and 500kg in diameter. The go-Mill 800 takes the Mikron HPM 800 U to a blisk-dedicated level of performance by adding Liechti’s proprietary computer-aided manufacturing software and backing it up with vast and ever-evolving blisk manufacturing process knowledge.

From applications and software to tooling, clamping, machining strategies and even coolant, Liechti takes a 4P approach – Plan, Performance, Partnership and Profit Increase – to help customers push their processes and productivity to new levels. The go-Mill 800, allowing 5-axis profile machining with 1g (=10m/s²) acceleration and deceleration per axis, is Liechti’s turnkey solution for blisk production. Embedded with Liechti’s specialised TURBOSOFT plus CAM software, the go-Mill 800 is more flexible compared to highly dedicated Liechti blisk machines and allows switching to other applications when the machine isn’t being used for blisk production.

By being able to switch from blisk production to other applications, like structural parts for aerospace, customers get more productivity from the go-Mill 800. And, across the life cycle of the machine, blisk manufacturers profit from unparalleled support in production, ramp-up, applications and maintenance from Liechti’s blisk milling experts.

That continuous acceleration of customer-centric innovation and development is at the heart of GF Machining Solutions’ commitment to blisk and blade manufacturers, as Kasper concludes: “GF Machining Solution’s supremacy in blisk and blade manufacturing is advanced by the Turbine Group helping these customers reduce their cost per part and grow their profitability by more than 30%. We are increasing turbine manufacturers’ satisfaction by delivering a higher level of support quality throughout the full product life cycle. And – as a single, competent point of contact – we provide our customers with the most competitive blisk and blade manufacturing solutions.”

GF Machining Solutions will be exhibiting at the Paris Airshow in hall 4, stand B54.

www.gfms.com