Excellence in the field of composites

Mike Richardson meets with CTG – Actuation Systems, UTC Aerospace Systems’ marketing manager, Kate White to hear about the latest developments taking place at the company’s new facility in Banbury.
‘If you build it, they will come’ sounds very similar to the disembodied phrase heard by Kevin Costner’s film character in the film, Field of Dreams. It’s a sentiment that holds true within the field of composites manufacturing too, as a company based in Oxfordshire has emerged with the dream that if it builds a composites production facility then the customers will come.

This dream has become reality for CTG, a UTC Aerospace Systems company, with the completion of the construction and fit out of its state-of-the-art Composite Centre of Excellence Banbury-based facility. The company provides capabilities in the design, validation and manufacture of advanced composite products and claims to be at the forefront of precise fibre placement techniques; specialising in filament winding.

Making steady progress with the layout of the production area, CTG’s 137,000ft2 facility unites the company’s six current sites into one location to give it an overall footprint increase of more than 90% and enable it to manufacture volume quantities of advanced composite products and systems used across a range of high technology industries more effectively.

The Lean dream

The facility has been designed using UTC’s Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE) lean principles which focus on material flow and flexibility. Layout of the production area has been planned using value stream envelopes; enabling wasted space to be lowered by more than 30% and linkage and flow improvement to increase by 50% in comparison to the old sites. Employees have already moved in, and the facility will be fully operational by mid-2014.

“Our previous facilities were spread out over six sites, so the aim was to combine all these sites under one roof and create a lean, efficient production line,” explains CTG – Actuation Systems, UTC Aerospace Systems’ marketing manager, Kate White. “Very few companies possess the high volume composite manufacturing capabilities that we now have. We’re trying to think about Lean manufacturing philosophies and take inspiration from automotive-based factories in terms of attaining absolute perfection. Although we’re not there yet, we soon will be.

“We’re fortunate to have UTC’s support and processes, auditors and advisors. It’s also been beneficial for the business and has been much easier to transition into the Centre of Excellence. It’s exactly what a centre of excellence should look like and we’re delighted with the outcome which will benefit our customers, employees, and the wider UTC organisation.”

White goes on to explain that CTG serves two very different types of customer and therefore needs to be extremely agile in coping with the different turnaround times of the automotive and aerospace sectors.
“The automotive sector is really reactive and we need to be on our mettle, otherwise we could lose business to other competitors,” she continues. “One of the benefits of being an aerospace business is that our quality standards are extremely high – they have to be. We’ve just attained our AS9100 Rev C, which helps us maintain our high quality levels, even when serving other markets.

“At present, CTG’s industry split comprises 30% aerospace and 70% ground. Our medical MRI business represents a large proportion of our turnover whilst the rest is automotive and clean energy, including flywheels, prop shafts, hydraulic accumulators and pressure vessels. We supply most of the Formula 1 teams right through to automotive OEMs where our prop shafts can be found on certain super cars.

Transmission and transition

For the aerospace component manufacturing industry, CTG manufactures transmission shafts that are located in the secondary flight controls of the wings of an aircraft and control moving surfaces like slats and flaps.

“They need to withstand a lot of torque so we wind them from carbon fibre,” she notes. “We make all the end fittings in-house and then attach them using our patented metal to composite joint technology which relies purely upon the mechanics of the materials with zero reliance upon adhesives. Zero reliance on adhesive is seen as huge benefit in the aerospace industry as it reduces the risk of failure.

“Our products are displacing aluminium and steel alternatives as they are lighter, less bulky and can span much longer distances and yet be stronger. Our biggest shaft measures 1,900mm in length. Steel construction would require many different piece parts, fixtures and end fittings, which all adds weight. In terms of the weight reduction, a titanium transmission shaft has a mass per metre of 1,200g, whereas our product offering for the same part is only 280g. The potential weight savings are massive.”

Acquisitions of smaller, leaner and more agile independent composite manufacturing companies seem to be springing up more and more within in industry. How has the 2010 buyout of CTG by Goodrich Corporation (who in turn were acquired by UTC) benefited company?

“Goodrich acquired CTG and then UTC acquired Goodrich and merged them with Hamilton Sundstrand to form UTC Aerospace Systems,” White explains. “Going through two buyouts in two years wasn’t easy because it meant we had to adopt and comprehend another set of rules being imposed on the company.

“When Goodrich acquired the company, it opened up financial support and experience that we didn’t previously have. Looking at our old buildings, we were bursting at the seams because of customer demand. The growth was already there in terms of delivering it efficiently and being cost effective for our customers. Without the buyout we wouldn’t have this centre and we would not have been able to support the aspirations of our aerospace systems and financially this move wouldn’t have happened.”

White ends by not only reaffirming CTG’s growing involvement within the aerospace industry, but also in maintaining the growth of its products in key industries.

“The next two years will be about understanding where we fit,” she concludes. “After only one year’s journey into the programme there is already solid progress being made in terms of promoting CTG internally within UTC.”

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