AEROSPACE COMPOSITES & TRANSPARENCIES
Activities of this division comprise the design and fabrication of large very close tolerance tooling systems for composite aero structures and satellite applications and the manufacture of high performance aircraft and anti-ballistic transparencies, moulded thermo-plastic assemblies, composite components for internal and external airframe structural applications, and complex, high temperature composite components for high performance aero-engine applications.
Following the acquisitions of Odyssey Industries, Inc. and Global Tooling Systems, Inc. which were completed in June 2008, Aerospace Composites & Transparencies is now the largest of the Group’s three divisions, employing almost 1,000 people. The division is based entirely in North America with four facilities in California, one in Grand Prairie, Texas, and two facilities near Detroit, Michigan.
As a result of these acquisitions, the year ended 31 March 2009 saw a significant increase in both revenue and trading profit, climbing to £150.8 million and £43.2 million, respectively. These represented increases of £104.8 million (228%) and £33.2 million (333%).
Hampson is now the world’s largest and most vertically integrated supplier of highly engineered, close tolerance tooling systems for the fabrication and assembly of both metal and composite structures for commercial and military aircraft and space applications.
Almost all recently launched aircraft programmes, including commercial, military, helicopter and business and regional jets, contain significant percentages of composite parts and structures. The application of composite materials has spread from mainly secondary structures in existing generation aircraft, to primary structures such as wing surfaces, fuselage sections and empennages in latest generation aircraft. This evolution requires much larger, tighter toleranced tooling systems that are capable of forming these much larger, precisely dimensioned parts and structures. These systems include not only precision-machined moulds and mandrels from which critically dimensioned carbon fibre sections can be formed, but also full suites of complementary and fully integrated tooling systems designed to facilitate techniques and automated processes necessary to assemble the new generation airframes with shorter cycle times.
Since their acquisition, both Odyssey and GTS have traded very strongly and have, along with the Group’s existing tooling business, Coast Composites Inc., benefited from a period of exceptional demand for tooling. This demand has been spread across a wide variety of major aerospace programmes, but most particularly the A350, F-35 and the B747-8.
Both GTS and Coast have added additional manufacturing capacity in the period. Shortly after the year end, GTS successfully completed a move to a new, world-class, 215,000 square feet facility in Macomb Township, near Detroit, Michigan. Underpinning the strategic importance of this move, GTS secured a two year contract worth approximately US$16 million at the end of 2008/09 to provide assembly tools for a major US military aircraft programme, and remains confident of securing further orders later in the year to support derivative and increasing production rate requirements. Shortly after its acquisition by Hampson, Odyssey secured a US$17 million contract to integrate and supply a package comprising over 4,000 tools for the B787-8 programme which was largely delivered in the year.
The year ended 31 March 2009 saw Coast commission a new high-speed, long bed vertical milling machine as well as what is now the largest heat treatment oven in North America. With facilitisation of the recently leased facility in Santa Ana completed, Coast is now the most vertically integrated aerospace tooling business in the world, able to offer complete packages for large tooling moulds and mandrels from the original design stage, right through to final heat treatment, machining and finishing of the tool.
To accommodate Coast’s growing order book, finishing and assembly floor space at the Santa Ana facility has now been increased by an additional 50,000 square feet. Further additional machining capacity will be added late in 2009/10 as part of a US$8.5 million investment project.
PERFORMANCE
HAMPSON IS NOW THE WORLD’S LARGEST AND MOST VERTICALLY INTEGRATED SUPPLIER OF HIGHLY ENGINEERED, CLOSE TOLERANCE TOOLING SYSTEMS FOR THE FABRICATION AND ASSEMBLY OF BOTH METAL AND COMPOSITE STRUCTURES FOR COMMERCIAL AND MILITARY AIRCRAFT AND SPACE APPLICATIONS.
Best practices are being actively transferred across all three tooling businesses to ensure operational efficiencies and synergy benefits are maximised. Several significant projects have already achieved savings in key raw material purchases. Further initiatives are targeting potential energy savings and benefits from shared software applications.
As a result of a number of new contract wins, the Group’s high temperature composite business, Composites Horizons, Inc. saw its order book more than double in size although actual revenue in the year was slightly lower than in 2007/8. This reflected an engine programme cancellation by one customer as well as some slowdown in deliveries for the GE90-115B engine programme for the B777-200LR and B777-300ER aircraft as a result of the mid-year Boeing strike.
With both commercial and military aerospace platforms looking to maximise fuel efficiencies and achieve higher performance targets, gas turbine engine components previously designed in high temperature metals, are now being replaced by high temperature composites at an increasing rate. As a result, significant growth in the use of these materials is anticipated over the next decade, leaving Composites Horizons, Inc. very well positioned.
In order to accommodate the increased order book, manufacturing capacity at CHI’s California-based plant is being expanded via a new co-located leasehold facility which will add an additional 41,000 square feet of manufacturing floorspace; a near doubling of the current footprint. The expansion is part of a US$3.0 million project that will also see investment in new manufacturing technologies which will increase production efficiency, as well as accommodating in-house machining and assembly activities to secure additional sources of revenue and added value.
Texas-based Texstars, Inc. saw a reduction in revenue during the year as a result of the termination of the Eclipse 500 programme, for which it manufactured and assembled the composite nacelles. However, during the first half of 2008/09, its position as a technology leader in the manufacture of high performance military aerospace transparencies was underscored with the securing of an exclusive, five year contract to supply canopies to the US Air Force for the multi-role F-16 aircraft. The F-16 is the largest military fighter programme in the western world, with over 4,400 aircraft built since 1976, serving the air forces of 25 nations worldwide. This programme supports a strong domestic US and overseas aftermarket demand and together with anticipated further composite contracts, it is anticipated to help drive Texstars’ return to growth in 2009/10.
DURING THE YEAR, CALIFORNIA-BASED COMPOSITES HORIZONS, INC. HAS WON FOUR NEW MULTI-YEAR CONTRACTS EXCEEDING US$17 MILLION TO SUPPLY ADVANCED, HIGH TEMPERATURE COMPOSITE COMPONENTS FOR MAJOR US MILITARY AND FIGHTER ENGINE PROGRAMMES. THE COMPONENTS WILL BE MANUFACTURED IN A NEW 41,000 SQUARE FOOT EXTENSION TO CHI’S EXISTING PREMISES AND WILL EMPLOY SEVERAL ADVANCED NEW TECHNOLOGIES.
AEROSPACE COMPONENTS & STRUCTURES
The Aerospace Components & Structures businesses supply highly engineered, performance-critical metallic components, sub-assemblies and fully assembled structures to many of the world’s leading airframe manufacturers and gas turbine engine primes, including their tier one suppliers.
The division operates from eight facilities across the UK and North America and employs approximately 800 people. Principal operations comprise the manufacture of a broad range of metallic components for airframe and aero-engine applications.
In airframe, products manufactured include small sheet metal and laminated shim parts to large, stretch-formed aluminium components for aircraft wings, nacelles, fuselages, empennages and other structures. The division also supplies highly engineered, fully assembled aircraft structural sub-assemblies leveraging the full breadth of its manufacturing capability and assembly expertise.
High precision turbine engine components are manufactured for land-based industrial, naval and commercial and military aerospace applications from three facilities within the UK. These are complex to produce components machined out of titanium, super alloys and other exotic materials for use in performance-critical applications, particularly in arduous and high temperature environments.
Major customers for this division include BAE Systems, Boeing, Bombardier, Goodrich, Lockheed Martin, Messier Dowty, MTU, Rolls-Royce and Siemens. Hampson’s products can be found on a variety of platforms on land, at sea or in the air within the commercial and military sectors.
The year ended 31 March 2009 saw a small (£1.0 million) net reduction in revenue, to £88.0 million and a £1.6 million decline in trading profit. The lower revenue was due primarily to the termination of the Eclipse 500 programme, in respect of which Hampson’s Aerospace Components & Structures division manufactured and assembled the empennage structural sub-assembly. Following the bankruptcy of Eclipse Aviation Corporation under Chapter 7 of the United States Code, an impairment charge of £21.2 million has been taken to write down assets specific to that programme to their estimated net realisable values.
OVER US$8 MILLION HAS BEEN COMMITTED TO EXPAND COAST COMPOSITES, INC., WITH INVESTMENT IN A NEW HIGH SPEED, HIGH ACCELERATION, DUAL BRIDGE 5-AXIS LINEAR MOTOR VERTICAL MILLING MACHINE, ALONG WITH FACILITY ENLARGEMENT.
01. One of Texstars, Inc.’s coating facilities. Texstars provides thin film and abrasion-resistant coated products for high performance arduous use applications in both the aerospace and defence markets.
02.
This image demonstrates the scale of tooling Odyssey Industries, Inc. is able to offer. This dome mould was manufactured in mild steel and developed in two sections for separation and ease of movement. Dimensions of the fully assembled tool: H 3.3 m, W 6.75 m, L 11.4 m.
03. The new world-class 215,000 square foot facility, home of Global Tooling Systems, Inc., in Macomb Township, near Detroit, Michigan, being prepared for occupation in early 2009.
04. Airbus A350 centre wing box mould tool manufactured at Coast Composites, Inc. based in California, USA.
Development work on the HondaJet programme has proceeded well in the year and leveraging its expertise on advanced, light jet programmes, Hampson has begun delivery of sub systems to support the HondaJet certification process.
Supply chain rationalisation of one of the division’s customers following acquisition by a third party will see a reduction in ongoing revenue at the BHW (Components) Ltd., facility near Wigan in 2009/10. Activity is ongoing to realign the site cost base to expected lower activity levels and a number of additional management improvement initiatives have already commenced to partially mitigate the effect of lower volumes.
The division’s three Midlands, UK, gas turbine component machining businesses continued to perform well in 2008/09. As part of the strategy of diversifying the revenue and market sector base, the year saw the successful production launch of a number of complex machined components for several new customers in the aerospace landing gear and industrial gas turbine power generation markets. Operational performance scorecard measures also improved to record levels for the division.
Hampson is world leader in the manufacture of laminated and solid shim components used in airframe assembly and the Group’s shim businesses also continued to perform well in 2008/09. Despite the impact of the Boeing machinists’ strike halfway through the year, modest overall revenue growth was achieved in constant currency terms, with Attewell in particular achieving a number of important performance milestones.
Lamsco West, Inc. continued to add to their customer base during the period, shipping over 28,000 orders and 4,500,000 individual components and continuing an exemplary performance in quality and on time delivery of over 99.7%. Qualification as a source to supply carbon and glass composite shims for the B787 was a further key achievement for the business in the period and deliveries to this important new programme have already begun.
PERFORMANCE
LAMSCO WEST CONTINUES TO DISPLAY EXEMPLARY PERFORMANCE IN QUALITY AND ON TIME DELIVERY OF OVER 99.7%.
The photograph displays a Renshaw Touch Probe & Sphere system, a critical part of the CMM (Coordinate Measurement Machine) System, utilised extensively at Global Tooling Systems, Inc., in the quality assurance phase of tooling “buy-off”.