Boeing places subsequent order for orbital drilling equipment for 787 Dreamliner final assembly

After an initial order in June 2011, The Boeing Company has placed an additional order for portable Orbital Drilling equipment for final assembly of the 787 Dreamliner in Everett, USA.

This order contains 59 portable Orbital Drilling units of PM40 and PM60 models together with accessories. The units will be delivered during 2012 and will be used for drilling applications on the 787 Dreamliner in final assembly.

"I cannot understate how important this order is for us. This is the final validation of the Orbital Drilling technology as Boeing will now be implementing it on a large scale" says Hans-Petter Andersson, Novator's CEO. "This will keep our factory busy for a major part of 2012 and after delivery, a substantial part of the 787 will be drilled with our products. We are looking forward to working together with Boeing to implement this equipment into production. Needless to say, we are very happy about this order."

The Orbital Portable M-Series is based on Novator's patented Orbital DrillingTM technique that enables drilling of holes with high quality and finish while reducing the machine inventory and the cutting times. Orbital DrillingTM is a drilling technique where the cutter is revolving in a mechanically forced eccentric movement while simultaneously rotating around its own axis. In Orbital DrillingTM, the thrust force is very low which results in higher hole quality and is one of the factors that opens up for dry drilling. Dry drilling makes coolant obsolete and reduces environmental and health hazards.