The Art of Actuators
company now operates as PowerThru and PSI owns the technology. “We came up with a no-power lift. Everything worked perfectly on it,” said Scott Borchers, Beaver's engineering director. “The key was the fl ywheel system.”
Winning that contract remains a big source of pride within Beaver, as it fundamentally strengthened the company’s business. “We’re always innovating,” Kearns
said. Engineering Capabilities A key strength lies in Beaver's
engineering team, which has been assembled for specifi c skills related to ballscrews and electromechanical actuator systems. “Most of our engineers are on the actua- tor side, which is more complex,” Kearns said.
As part of its mechanical engineering operations, Beaver routinely uses 3D mod- eling and analysis, including fi nite element analysis. Although Beaver still uses 2D drawings, which can be seen on desks around its facilities, it sees a future where 3D virtual images are king. Therefore, Beaver is planning to move more substantially toward a tablet-based culture.
The team also has substantial electrical engineering experience, and it designs and analyzes its own circuit boards. And, of course, Beaver’s production team is highly skilled in CAD/CAM and a full range of metalworking and other manufactur- ing processes, such as milling, turning, whirling, grinding and more. In addition to large CMMs and other standard metrology tools, Beaver routinely builds its own testing equipment and procedures for the specialized items it builds. For their ballscrew products, Beaver tests not just for part accuracy, but for effi ciency and endurance, among other factors. Most of its products are also tested for different weather environments as well. (See a video about Beaver’s testing of an electrome- chanical actuator that controls a plane’s landing gear at
http://tinyurl.com/EMAtesting.) “We do a lot of testing and verifi cation,” Borchers said.
Beaver is proud of the fact that many workers have been with the company for decades, and there are a lot of family members in the company. “It says a lot when someone wants to bring their son or brother in,” Kearns said. Still, Beaver struggles to fi nd quality workers just like all manufacturers. “It’s national and it’s real,” Kearns said of the workforce shortage. To counteract the diffi culty in fi nding workers, Beaver has developed an intern program through local agencies and is now developing its own talent.
Beaver also is fully dedicated to a lean culture. All employees are trained in what it calls “Lean 101,” the company hosts monthly 5S events or kaizens, and continu- ous improvement is built into the company’s robust strategic planning process. ME
February 2014 |
ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com 103 B
eaver Aerospace & Defense designs and develops Electromechanical Actuators (EMAs) for customers whose applica- tions are rigorous and demanding, yet with short schedules and low-cost targets. Beaver can meet its customer’s needs by using proven designs and components when possible and custom designs and components when necessary. Among the com- ponents designed and manufactured by Beaver are linear, rotary, landing gear, trailer outrigger, missile silo, fl ap and trim actuators as well as auxiliary application actuators. Beaver also offers build-to-print capability for aerospace actuators. The company has extensive experience in the design and development of test stands, which are needed to fully test the auxiliary actuators.
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