approximately 40% to support Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 programs by acquiring eight five-spindle, five-axis MAG XTi profilers from MAG IAS LLC (Erlanger, KY) in a $36 million machinery purchase. The XTi profilers join ADI’s extensive portfolio of MAG machines including two three-axis XTi profil- ers and two MAG U5 portal mills and two MC 1600 boring mills acquired in a 2011 plant expansion. The 40 spindles of the five-axis XTi profilers are carried on eight individually con- trolled gantries that span 6 m with a Z-axis depth of 711 mm, providing a work envelope between each pair of rails of 1300 m2
for roughing and finishing the largest titanium workpieces. For machining both titanium and aluminum structural components, Valent Aerostructures (Kansas City, MO) recently acquired Vortex 1060V/8 simultaneous five-axis vertical ma- chining centers from Mazak Corp. (Florence, KY). Valent is a supplier to major aircraft builders like Boeing, Spirit Aerosys- tems, Lockheed Martin and Gulfstream. Valent’s strategy is to create two separate fully automated machining lines using
Mazak’s Palletech system. Both machining lines will allow untended operation and are modular so that Valent will be able to easily and cost-effectively expand as more machines are added to both lines. The titanium machining line features two Vortex 1060V/8 machines with hard metal machining packages and a two-level system with 24 pallets and a load/ unload station. The high-speed machining line will incorporate four Vortex 1060V/8 machines and a Palletech system. The Vortex machines at Valent illustrate how aerospace shops can obtain lowest possible cost of ownership through standard machines. Mazak offers both high-speed and high-torque versions of the Vortex, so Valent can process its aluminum and titanium parts with the same model machine. And together with the standard Palletech automation system, Valent further increases productivity. Mazak’s portfolio of machines for the aerospace industry will soon be captured in an industry-specific brochure featur- ing what President Brian Papke calls small and large-part