AIM Altitude is making investments to create a ‘Centre of Excellence’ for five-axis machining at its AIM Composites subsidiary, based in Cambridge, UK. The center will include a Belotti five-axis milling machine, for the high-speed trimming of complex molded components. This machine will be housed alongside a Uniteam five-axis machine (which has been transferred from AIM Altitude’s Cabin Interiors division), and new measurement equipment.
Chris Leese-Wood, managing director at AIM Composites, said, “The majority of our projects for the AIM Altitude Group, as well as outside customers, require significant amounts of five-axis machining. It is therefore important that we invest in an in-house capability. This will support our current production needs, along with the anticipated future increase in this element of our work. Typically, we run hundreds of one-off components each month to complete a single ship-set of parts. These small batch-sizes mean that fast setup and turnaround of components is critical.”
The investment includes associated equipment and software, to support the new processes. The machine has also been configured with MSP probing, to allow in-process probing and validation.
