Manufacturing Today Issue - 223 April 2024 | Page 51

_____________________________________________________________________________________________ Janicki Industries
tooling for the 787 , 777X , and C-Series aircraft . Specifically , we produced the tooling for the 777X ’ s spars , which are an incredible 105 feet long .
“ While there are several companies making composite parts , few are capable of producing the very large parts that we specialize in ,” John continues . “ This factor sparked interest from the space market , particularly for parts used for launching , as these are a crucial aspect of the aircraft but only used once , as they are released at a certain point during the launch . As you can imagine , these parts have very specific requirements , but our expertise in machining both aluminum and stainless steel means we can produce parts with optimal results .”
Turning to Janicki ’ s manufacturing facilities , John explains : “ We ’ re vertically integrated , which bolsters our ability to produce parts for the structure of any aircraft or space vehicle . We have a strong research and development team , building on decades of experience in composite manufacturing . “ When it comes to quality , we conduct stress testing to identify potential problems . We analyze how things operate and stretch the limits of what we can do with the materials to see how they are impacted by certain conditions . We also purposely place defects on test items or break parts to identify where we can modify the design to make it more durable or easier to build , for example .”
In addition to its existing sites , Janicki has recently invested in a new facility specifically for an aerospace program . “ We won a significant contract in 2022 , which required a new building with unique specifications and a large manufacturing space ,” John elaborates . “ At 180,000 square feet , we ’ ve got a vast area with new equipment to facilitate this project .
“ Due to inflation and supply chain shortages , combined with our schedule requirements , we decided to construct the entire site from timber . Considering our family history in the timber industry , this was a
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