Soft Density Mil Spec Materials

Background

A company that pioneers in designing, developing, building, and supporting some of the world’s most advanced military aircraft, spacecraft, and cyber security systems required a large set of parts created for testing. This company had worked with PGC for years and knew that their cutting-edge project needed additional value-added engineering input and knowledge. PGC was the right supplier to develop a solution with these and various other critical requirements:

• Uncommon soft density mil spec materials that were new to PGC

• An expensive high-purity material capable of withstanding 1600°C (2912°F)

• Complex drawings with geometric dimensioning and tolerancing requiring inspection data

Challenge

This customer had an aggressive timeline for prototype parts to be able complete early-stage concepts and feasibility studies. Thanks to an assortment of equipment and manufacturing processes capable of virtually every type of cutting, PGC is capable of rapid prototyping. However, since the material was costly, PGC needed to rely on multiple partner suppliers for sample materials to make prototypes.

Solution

After thoroughly reviewing the set of customer drawings, PGC immediately reached out to suppliers for available material to use for the prototyping phase. Our partner relationships with vendors made it possible to get the material needed to investigate best manufacturing practices for these various new materials quickly. Once we had the material in hand, it was easy to identify the materials to be similar to others, so we quickly jumped into cutting parts.

The next stage was to use our camera-based CMM inspection machines to identify the complex geometry and report inspection dimensions for each prototype part. Through this effort, PGC’s engineering team helped determine necessary corrections to each drawing for production-ready use.

Result

After customer testing proved the prototypes were successful, we were both ready to initiate production manufacturing. PGC’s rapid response to produce, inspect, and deliver parts for engineering discussions and final evaluation solidified our customer-supplier partnership. As a result, PGC continues to become an extension to many customers as an external engineering branch for advanced sealing solutions. The results proved PGC’s continuous engineering efforts remain an important reason why PGC is a market leader for high-quality custom gaskets, seals, and rubber products.