Building aerospace hardware has never been more challenging. Apex works with aircraft customizers mostly for Bombardier Global and RJ aircraft. There is a strict build deadline from when jet shells enter the hanger until the completed jet is delivered to the customer. Apex production is tuned to produce the required hardware in the quickest way possible maintaining the highest quality. The image shown below a typical requirement. It looks like a simple molding but in actually it is quite complex and requires 3 machining disciplines to complete. The curved top section requires 3d , C.N.C. milling, the inside intersection with barely no radius requires wire EDM while the 2 pockets require plunge EDM or EDM sinking as we call it. The reason for the plunge EDM is due to the internal square corners. We encourage engineers to use plunge EDM sparingly as it can get quite expensive. Fortunately this was a simple burn.
A team of 8 skilled technicians were pulled together to produce these components over a 5 week time frame. More often than not the delivery date dictates the machining process to be chosen or the recipe to build these components. Keep in mind this is a new component for Apex and there is no recipe. Everything Apex builds or designs requires is own production process.
On average Apex fills 1500 orders per year ranging from prototypes which are usually low quantity to production runs of 1K -10K. Apex runs 3 shifts so prototypes get planned out and built on the day shift while the production is done on second and third shifts. Component planning, creation and development are a big part of our day and Apex has “what it takes” to get the job done.
