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C&D Aerospace Soars with Cincinnati Machine
World’s largest producer of aircraft interior systems and components uses Cincinnati Machine VMCs and TCs to maximize growth.
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| C&D Aerospace's 44,000 sq-ft machine shop in Garden Grove, California. |
C&D, headquartered in Huntington Beach, California, is the world’s largest designer and manufacturer of complete interior systems and components for airframe manufacturers and major airlines around the world.
Since 1972, C&D has supplied complete floor-to-ceiling interior systems and components—encompassing overhead storage bins, seats, sidewalls, ceiling panels and dado panels, window reveals, galleys, lavatories and closets—for almost every commercial aircraft model and airline.
Today C&D has more than 3,500 employees working in 11 different divisions around the world. And from concept to manufacturing, C&D’s capabilities are completely in-house, providing optimum quality assurance since more than 95 percent of its final product is totally under C&D’s control.
With more than 2 million square feet of manufacturing space throughout its various facilities, each C&D plant is virtually self-sufficient, except for specific functions, which are centralized in one plant and then distributed to other facilities to maximize efficiency.
Quality tooling has been a crucial factor in C&D’s prominence in the aircraft industry; its investment in machining capabilities, reflecting its commitment to the highest quality, has been unequalled in its industry.
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| Machine shop manager Burt Aukerman (left) oversees parts for machining on an Arrow VMC-1250. |
Growing Up with Cincinnati machines
C&D owns 44 Cincinnati Machine Vertical Machining Centers and four Turning Centers, which are divided between the 44,000 square-foot machine shop in Garden Grove, California, where Aukerman is based, and other C&D manufacturing facilities in Ontario, California and Marysville, Washington. Five of the machines are Arrow® VMC-1500s, two are Arrow VMC-2000s and the majority of the rest are Arrow and Sabre® VMC-1000s, Aukerman noted.
Cincinnati machines have essentially formed the core around which C&D’s exceptional machining capabilities have grown, he said.
When C&D began, its entire business focus was on plastic injection molding and vacuum forming. When the airframe manufacturers started outsourcing interior components years ago, C&D gained a foothold in the business by producing small elements of the interior, the tooling of which was based on Cincinnati Machine products.
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| Cincinnati VMCs are used throughout the Garden Grove facility to provide fast, accurate machining capabilities. |
C&D prides itself on its ability to meet the delivery schedules of many programs and projects for aircraft companies and airlines at extremely aggressive rates and excellent value.
"The Cincinnati machines that we have do an exceptional job and operate at levels that allow us to increase throughput times and capacity on parts, so we can produce them entirely in-house at a cost that’s highly competitive in the marketplace," he noted.
The Cincinnati Machine VMCs provide maximum return on capital investment, Aukerman said. "We run these machines 20 hours a day, six days a week. Some of them have been running for five or six years, and they just keep going. These machines are exceptionally reliable and highly productive for what they cost."
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| A variety of aircraft interior components, including airline seats, are manufactured at the facility in Ontario, California and sent for assembly at other C&D plants. |
Most of C&D’s products are made with various types of composite honeycomb materials, and the Garden Grove facility machines the metal and plastic parts required for bracketry, attachment fittings and doublers, he explained.
"At Garden Grove we manufacture the actual machine parts that go into all the different products, and we ship from our industry division to other divisions around the country and the world, where it’s all assembled into the finished product," Aukerman said. "Machine parts are only one component that goes into a finished C&D product, but they are an essential component."
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| C&D provides components and complete interiors for major airline manufacturers throughout the world. |
The majority of the metal machined on the Cincinnati VMCs is 6061, 2024, and 7075 aluminum, Aukerman said, but his staff also machines stainless steel and alloy steels as well as different kinds of plastic and nylons.
All the Cincinnati Machine Arrow® and Sabre® Vertical Machining Centers and Avenger Turning Centers are equipped with the powerful, PC-based Siemens A2100 CNC, and programming poses no difficulties for the shop.
Most of the CNC programming is done offline and the parts manufactured on the Cincinnati machines are programmed in advance, then simply loaded and run. "All the offsets are determined beforehand and the operator is given a cart that has programs, drawings and setup sheets, and the toolholders are loaded with offsets already determined. The operator just loads the tools in the carousel, loads the program and starts machining the piece."
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| An operator utilizes the accuracy of an Arrow VMC-1250C to machine high tolerance components. |
Typically, Aukerman explained, C&D products are sold to the airframe manufacturer, which builds the planes and only parts of the interior, such as baggage bins, ceilings and sidewalls. The airline that purchases the plane then contracts for the rest of the interior components, such as galleys, closets and seats, on an aftermarket basis. But there are exceptions, Aukerman said. C&D formerly did all of the interiors for McDonnell Douglas aircraft, but that ended when Boeing, which traditionally built its own interiors, acquired Douglas. Boeing has since changed its strategy and has outsourced its first interior work for the B767, which is being built by C&D now.
In addition, C&D has captured so much of the regional jet market, Aukerman said, that it is building entire interiors, principally for the Embraer ERJ 135 and ERJ 145 models being built in Brazil.
C&D also performs extensive retrofit work for the major airlines when aircraft interiors reach the point that they are no longer serviceable and must be replaced for aesthetics or for a fleet upgrade, he noted.
From where C&D stands now, the future looks bright, Aukerman said. "Business continues to grow at an impressive rate, we’re expanding globally every day, and no slowdown in our business is expected. Just as Cincinnati Machine has been crucial to our growth in the past, it will continue to be in our future."