Within weeks of gaining final approval for its AS 9001 Aerospace Quality System Standard, Mollart Engineering's two subcontract machining operations worked together to secure an aerospace contract to produce initial batches of a range of thin-walled tubes that will contain explosive charges for use in life-saving applications.

The first batch of 150 specialist toughened alloy tubular components, that vary in size up to 38 mm diameter by 300 mm long, are initially deep hole drilled 32 mm diameter by 215 mm deep within tolerances of 0.05 mm at the Mollart facility in Chessington, Surrey. Once completed they are shipped to the Resolven plant in South Wales where finish machining is carried out on the installed Mazak Integrex multi-axis, turn-mill centres.

Said Director, Wayne Thomas: “These are safety critical components in an aerospace assembly and gaining our AS 9001 certification enabled us to reopen the door to an established customer that we previously produced parts for in 2006.” 

As a result, Mollart is now quoting on further components where the advantage of combining Chessington expertise in deep hole machining with the in-house capability for multi-axis machining, fabrication, cleanroom assembly and test at Resolven.