A Sign Of The Times

The South-West of England has firmly established itself as the home of aerospace engineering in the UK. With companies like Honeywell, BAE, Eaton Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, Meggitt and M.E.L. Aviation all operating in this region.

When their requirements for high precision products made from exotic materials were found to be within the capabilities of William Hughes Ltd, it was only a matter of time before we became a supplier to this prestigious and lucrative industry.

In 2006 William Hughes attained the AS9100 quality standard, the quality management system standard for the aerospace industry. Add to this state of the art spring measurement equipment and a completely bespoke service of manufacturing means that three years further on, all of the above mentioned companies are our customers and we are an audited and approved supplier to Honeywell.

What it Takes to be a Supplier to the Aerospace Industry:

High temperature exotic materials
To meet the specifications for high temperature performance, many springs for the aerospace industry are manufactured in exotic materials such as Nimonic, Inconel and Ni-span. These expensive materials are more difficult to work than conventional materials and William Hughes has the machinery and expertise to use these materials with high accuracy and minimum wastage.

Small quantities for prototype use
The company has many years of design and manufacturing experience and can offer its customers a rapid design and prototyping service in a range of materials. This service is particularly suited to the aerospace industry where small quantities are required for test and evaluation with the capability to move to volume production once a final design is agreed. Quality systems to AS 9100, ISO 9001:2000 and ISO/TS 16949:2002 ensure consistency and accuracy of supply.

Detailed specifications and tight manufacturing tolerances
To check that the required specifications and manufacturing tolerances are being met, production of compression springs can be inspected and measured, instantly and accurately using the latest high technology camera/PC based measuring system. This machine is used to determine the length, outside diameter, end coil profile, ‘squareness’ and parallelism of the spring when it is stood on its ground end face.

Cleanliness, including ultrasonic cleaning
For critical applications it is essential that any lubricants and debris from the manufacturing process are removed from the spring before it is despatched to the customer and William Hughes offers an ultrasonic cleaning process to meet aerospace standards for cleanliness.

Bespoke Labelling and packaging
Following the cleaning process springs are individually packed and labelled to the customers’ requirements, in sealed bags to ensure they do not get contaminated before use.

Assemblies
William Hughes can simplify inventory and streamline manufacturing processes by supplying assemblies of metal components, for example, metal pressed parts with riveted threaded inserts. This provides significant savings in assembly costs through simplification of the supply chain and a reduced number of in-house operations.

The Finished Products

The pictures below show a few of the aircraft William Hughes products can be found in, from components in oxygen masks to hydraulic and fuel systems, and much more.