NWI Aerostructures
Nashville, TN
www.nwiaero.com
Fives Machining Systems
Heborn, KY
www.fivesgroup.com
Siemens
Elk Grove Village, IL
usa.siemens.com/nwi-aero
The aerospace industry is in an era of profound innovation. Airplanes and air travel are transforming in response to the needs of the global economy, necessitating the building of aircraft at an accelerated pace.
With over 50 years of long-bed machining expertise, NWI is a contract manufacturer of complex structural components, sub-assemblies, and complete major assemblies of wing structures. The company supports leading OEMs producing commercial, business, and general aviation aircraft.
Core competencies of this quiet powerhouse include precision machining of long and large aircraft components, forming of long and large parts, including autoclave age forming, largescale processing, automated fastening of structural components and integrated assembly of major aerospace structures.
NWI specializes in manufacturing some of the longest skins, stringers, and spars in the industry. State-of-the-art five-axis machining technology allows the NWI team to produce large, monolithic, complex components. The company has made strategic investments in advanced long-bed machining equipment to meet the demands of rising production rates and high-quality surface finishes, adding 10 additional spindles since 2021.
“We are a focused factory for long and large aluminum machining for structural components upward of 100 feet long and 20 feet wide for the world’s leading aerospace companies,” said Brannon Pfeffer, NWI Senior Manufacturing Engineer. “Our niche in the market is long and large aluminum structures.”
NWI continually evolves, keeping up with advancements to best serve top-tier aerospace companies. “We’ve produced wing and empennage assemblies, and detail parts like skins, spars, and other components for the past 80 years. The precision, the surface finish, and the speed at which we produce them today is dramatically different than it was 20 years ago. That’s due to the cutters, equipment, programming, and the controls,” CNC Programming Manager Steve Freeman explained.
With the continued growth in air travel, NWI Aerostructures has been receiving increased orders for more parts as program rates increase. To capitalize on this opportunity, NWI saw a need to standardize its machining capabilities. After exploring purchasing new equipment, the NWI team determined that retrofitted Cincinnati gantry machines, complete with SINUMERIK ONE CNC controls from Siemens, were the best option to meet the growing and evolving demands of their customers
As the original equipment manufacturer of the Cincinnati machines, Fives Machining Systems understands the fleet like no other company. It is a major benefit to have Fives servicing the equipment on a regular basis and a huge check in the pro column to have the OEM refurbish these machines.
To maximize investments made on precision-machining equipment, Fives brings more than 40 years of experience and expertise to upgrading and retrofitting existing machines with the latest controls, drives, motors, and spindles. SINUMERIK ONE CNC from Siemens is integral to this process.
Fives refurbished several machines at NWI, some with 30-plus years of successful service. Originally manufactured between 1985 and 1998, each machine has undergone a multistage refurbishing process. At the heart of each successful refresh, Fives relies on Siemens 5-axis CNC control.
Once installed, the new control package is commissioned and tested to ensure it delivers the operational performance levels desired. Fives also provides specialized training needed to ensure its customers get the most out of their new equipment.
Switching to SINUMERIK ONE can result in a 30 percent increase in productivity for 5-axis machining. For 3-axis machines, you can achieve 20 percent faster results,” said Robert Stiefel, Head of Siemens Aerospace Vertical Market, U.S.
“With the pioneering SINUMERIK ONE now powering its 10,000-rpm Cincinnati gantries, NWI will be even more efficient, helping the company increase its value to customers by focusing on innovation,” said Gregory Mihalovich, Technical Sales Manager at Fives Machining Systems, sums up the benefits.
Stiefel also emphasizes the time-savings of a retrofit, which typically takes only 14 to 16 weeks and limits downtime. “A new machine purchase might take between six months and two years depending upon the size and complexity of the machine tool. It could be over two years between when you order the machine and when you machine your first part,” he said.
NWI programmers and machine operators are finding the digital-native SINUMERIK ONE control a familiar tool for precision machining control, having used Siemens CNC on previous generation machines.
“Staying with Siemens CNC has helped us be consistent,” said Jacob Benton, Manufacturing Engineer at NWI. “Both long-term employees and new hires have current experience running Siemens-equipped CNC machines. Every person who touches a Siemens SINUMERIK ONE is impressed by its processing speed and our teams are quickly making the most of the increased functionality. Standardization across the factory is very important for NWI, with all of their CNC milling machines running a Siemens control. This decreases training requirements, improves flexibility, and standardizes maintenance and repair of parts.”
“Using the digital twin, you can run an actual program and get an exact example of how the program will run on the machine — even before making the first cut on the real machine,” said Robert Varney, Fives after-market Engineering Director. “In some cases, it’s troubleshooting before there’s trouble.”
Additionally, the advanced SINUMERIK ONE cybersecurity features, which are designed to meet coming requirements for government contracts, are ever more important to NWI and its customers. For NWI Aerostructures, Siemens SINUMERIK ONE will ensure the company stays atop the “long and large” machining niche.
This article was contributed by Siemens (Elk Grove Village, IL). For more information visit here .
