Client

Plascore

How ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking helped Plascore deliver their jet engine nacelle components on time and on budget

  • 50% reduction in development time
  • Thousands of dollars saved on material costs and machining time

The Challenge

Plascore, Inc. is a global manufacturer of honeycomb products that are used to strengthen just about every structure in many commercial, defense, and aerospace aircraft. They had a project that required 6 large heat form fixtures for 2 jet engine nacelles. The heat form fixtures needed to be leak-tight on the welding for a good vacuum and each one had to be fabricated with near-perfect accuracy for machining.

This was an opportunity for Plascore to succeed on a project where many other companies had failed for this particular client.

The Solution

Having previously partnered on projects that “required some out-of-the-box ingenuity,” Plascore partnered with us to build those heat form fixtures. They sent us a CAD concept of the part that they needed to create and its specifications. But we knew our job wasn’t to simply fabricate each aluminum fixture accurately — we needed to think through the whole project. After 3D machining, these fixtures created the final shape of the product. We had to consider potentially adjusting every spec until we were confident in the product. This included:

  • Material type
  • Material thickness
  • Material tolerance
  • Material strength
  • Welding type
  • Final inspection

The Results

Although we are not a design company, but we do consider ourselves a solutions provider. We had a talented tradesperson who was willing to lead the endeavor and through the creativity, curiosity, and willingness of our team to try a different way of solving this problem, we were able to not only build the 6 heat form fixtures to spec but halve their turnaround times. Since then, Plascore has continued to use Impact Fab on similar projects, sometimes trusting us to deliver parts based on a simple PowerPoint design and STP file.

What Plascore says about Impact Fab

I would definitely recommend Impact Fab. They stand behind their work. They are very good at understanding our needs and requirements. Ross, his brother Brad, and the team can handle most anything we throw at them. We send a CAD file, drawing, a PowerPoint, and maybe a couple follow-up emails and they are very prompt in getting back to us with a quote. Then they usually beat their quoted times with a high-quality product.

– Alan Garcia

The partnership with Impact Fab has allowed us to solve complex problems with reasonable solutions that work for both parties. They stand by their commitment to achieving their customer’s goals and staying committed to the lead times without sacrificing quality.

-Ryan Demeester, Business Unit Manger