Fixtures are a major bottleneck in the production of many aerospace components. Unlike most other companies in the sector, JJ Churchill has invested heavily in this capability to gain more control and guarantee quality. Company designers and machinists produce fixtures to an accuracy of 20 micron.
The facility has a range of equipment, which was recently enhanced with a 3D printer, enabling the division to reduce the time for prototype manufacturing from weeks to hours. Other capabilities include CNC milling, turning and wire EDM, as well as CMM inspection and automated part marking.
JJ Churchill’s initiative has released a lot of space which is now being devoted to the production of aerospace components, including the £70 million contract with Rolls Royce announced at last year’s Farnborough Air Show.
Design engineer Matthew Smith says: “The most technically challenging problems in machining can be found in the design and production of fixtures for complex aerospace parts. And that’s what we do here at JJ Churchill – we focus on problems where the first reaction is ‘that can’t be done’. But we do it, day in day out, producing fixtures that enable us to hit our manufacturing schedules. We’re continuously ramping up to meet the needs of our growing business.”
