Product Lifecycle Management © 2003 IBM Corporation AF Aerospace Ltd.  Customer background –AF Aerospace Limited, based in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, manufactures specialised turned parts for the aerospace industry. With 108 employees, AF Aerospace has been a prime supplier for military aircraft programmes since the 1970s and has a lengthy list of quality approvals from OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers.  Business challenges –Requirement from one of its major customers, Airbus, to use CATIA V5 as the prime model source. –Need to ugprade its tooling systems and have a CNC programming source capable of driving the new, more sophisticated tools. –Desire to become involved in the Airbus design process earlier, giving the company the chance to positively affect designs for manufacturability.  Solution implementation –AF Aerospace chose CATIA V5 for CNC programming to drive its new Mori Seki MT2000, a 1 SZ integrated turnmill centre with 9-axis capabilities supplied by Fredk. Pollard & Co. Ltd. of Leicester, England. –Pollard and IBM worked together to ensure that the CATIA V5 system would take full advantage of the continuous multi-axis machining capability of the MT2000.  Benefits of the solution –CATIA V5 fulfills Airbus’ requirement for collaboration with AF Aerospace using CATIA V5 as the prime model source. –CATIA V5 enables AF Aerospace to easily programme the most complex components for milling on the MT2000. –CATIA V5 enables AF Aerospace to offer an improved value proposition to its customers –Early design involvement allows AF Aerospace to suggest design changes to reduce setting and tooling while reducing component weight.

Product Lifecycle Management © 2003 IBM Corporation AF Aerospace Ltd.  The Industry AF Aerospace Limited, based in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, manufactures specialised turned parts for the aerospace industry. With 108 employees, AF Aerospace has been a prime supplier for military aircraft programmes since the 1970s and has a lengthy list of quality approvals from OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers.  The Challenge AF Aerospace is a supplier to Airbus, which requires its suppliers to use CATIA V5 as their prime model source. AF Aerospace wanted to position itself to be involved on the front end of Airbus’ designs, allowing it to influence design to improve manufacturing and be more competitive for top contracts.  The Solution AF Aerospace selected CATIA V5 from IBM for CNC programming. This enabled the company to install the Mori Seki MT2000 from Fredk. Pollard & Co. Ltd., a 1 SZ integrated turnmill centre that allows AF to offer up to nine- axis machining capabilities to its clients. CATIA V5 had the programming power to drive the new mill while meeting the Airbus requirements.  The Customer Benefits CATIA V5 allows AF Aerospace to become involved early in the Airbus design process for the A380 military freighter and positively influence design for manufacturability. “The advantage of this new method of manufacture is the ability to achieve much closer tolerances and much thinner wall thicknesses, which has a major impact on component weight, a critical feature on the A380.” – Mac Fletcher, Commercial Operations Manager, AF Aerospace Ltd.

Product Lifecycle Management © 2003 IBM Corporation AF Aerospace takes flight with CATIA V5 New, high-efficiency tooling solution AF Aerospace Limited, based in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, manufactures specialised turned parts for the aerospace industry. With 108 employees, AF Aerospace has been a prime supplier for military aircraft programs since the 1970s and has a lengthy list of quality approvals from original equipment manufacturers and Tier 1 suppliers. Today, collaboration between aerospace OEMs and suppliers has become closer than ever, with suppliers becoming involved early in design decisions that affect ease of manufacture and product performance. AF Aerospace saw that it could use this trend to build on its existing close relationship with Airbus, which is building the A380 Freighter and the A400M “We have moved to being a leader in our field with the help of IBM.” Mac Fletcher, Commercial Operations Manager, AF Aerospace Ltd