Marshall Aerospace’s manufacturing specialists have delivered tens of thousands of high-quality parts, complex components and assemblies for civil and military aircraft and ground equipment. Working from a NADCAP-accredited 3,700m2 facility, the team is able to provide all aspects of manufacture, repair and overhaul.
A new video shows the manufacturing process from start to finish, following our experts in Cambridge as they take a single product all the way from CNC programming through machining, inspection, testing, treatment, paint and final assembly. This is all housed under one roof, avoiding the complexity, cost and risks associated with subcontracting.
The product is then delivered to Marshall’s Advanced Manufacturing Solutions facility, where it is installed inside a Boeing P-8 Poseidon auxiliary fuel tank.
Everything under one roof
A summary of the key production stages captured in the video can be found below.
Front-end processes
Working directly from Marshall Aerospace’s build-to-print design for this P-8 Poseidon fuel tank part, the team completes CNC programming before proceeding to machining, turning lengths of raw metal into complex shapes.
The Cambridge workshop contains a full range of equipment for CNC milling and turning, manual milling and turning, grinding, honing, sheet-metal fabrication, and additive manufacturing.
Physical inspection
Following complex production, our technicians carry out an array of rigorous conformity and compliance checks to ensure that the product has been produced in line with the most exacting aerospace standards.
Visible in this video is a coordinate measuring machine (CMM), which precisely measures the dimensions of the manufactured part, using a computer-controlled probe to capture 3D data.
Testing
After passing initial inspection, the part then moves on to non-destructive testing (NDT). This is conducted in a dedicated in-house facility for fluorescent penetrant testing, which can expose any surface-breaking defects on produced parts and components.
If needed, Marshall’s manufacturing team also has access to a broader range of aerospace NDT capabilities across the business, including magnetic testing, eddy current testing, ultrasonic testing, and radiography.
Treatment and coatings
Once the part is confirmed to be free of surface defects, it undergoes surface treatment and coatings – in this case, chromic and sulphuric anodising.
A number of additional treatments can be carried out as needed, including heat treatment, surface treatment, chromate conversion coating, and CRS passivation. All of these help to make products fit for purpose, protecting them from corrosion and enhancing their useful lifespan.
Once this is complete, the part is painted thoroughly in the facility’s dedicated paint room.
Final assembly
Having been through machining, inspection, treatment and paint, the remaining stage in the process is to assemble the product ahead of delivery.
Depending on the customer’s needs, Marshall Aerospace can carry out complex structural and electrical assembly to standards required for critical airborne components.
The assembled product then receives a final inspection and is cleared for delivery.
Installation
The finished part is delivered to Marshall Aerospace’s Advanced Manufacturing Solutions facility, which provides third-party complex subsystem assembly for some of the world’s leading aerospace and defence businesses.
The product is kept in inventory until the time comes to install it inside a Boeing P-8 auxiliary fuel tank. This completes a process by which, over a matter of days, several pieces of raw metal have now been transformed into a certified flight-ready part.
Learn more about parts and components manufacturing at Marshall Aerospace