Novaria Group acquires assets of Weatherford Aerospace

October 21, 2014
Source:

Novaria Group, Fort Worth, Texas, announces the acquisition of substantially all the assets of Weatherford Aerospace Inc., Weatherford, Texas. Weatherford is a provider of aircraft wing skins, formed structures, and unique services related to the treatment and processing of aerospace products. Novaria plans to pursue strategic growth and expansion of Weatherford's capabilities, while also delivering enduring value to customers, employees and the aerospace industry.

Weatherford's manufacturing capabilities are focused on a wide variety of processes and products that are incorporated into most airframes flying today. The company's customers include many major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and tier 1 and tier 2 supply chain partners such as: Gulfstream, Boeing, Bell Helicopter, Bombardier, Lockheed Martin, Spirit and Triumph.

Charles Paris, Sr., founder of Weatherford, will be retained as a consultant to the company. Weatherford will continue operations in a total of 165,000 sq. ft. at its two manufacturing locations, both of which are located in Weatherford, just a few miles west of Fort Worth.

Novaria is currently pursuing additional growth opportunities, capitalizing on the expanding aerospace market by acquiring majority interests in small- to mid-market companies looking for a long-term oriented, well-aligned, financial and operational partner.

http://www.weatherfordaerospace.com

Alcoa’s one-piece forged aluminum hull doubles blast protection for combat vehicles

October 15, 2014
Source:

Alcoa, Pittsburgh, has produced the world's largest single-piece forged aluminum hull for combat vehicles to improve troop protection as part of a joint Alcoa-U.S. Army initiative launched last year. Alcoa manufactured the single-piece part, which was co-designed by Alcoa and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, with the goal of replacing today's assembled hulls.

Forging hulls as one unit facilitates three-dimensional shaping, allowing Alcoa to tailor the thickness where needed to maximize protection and allow for weight savings. A monolithic hull could be used to produce new, or retrofit existing combat and tactical vehicles.

Alcoa produced two demonstrator forgings at its plant in Cleveland using its 50,000-ton forging press, the world's most advanced hydraulic press. Alcoa's engineers in Cleveland leveraged their expertise and decades of commercial forging experience to produce the hull earlier than the expected deliverable of 18 months.

Based on early modeling and simulation, single-piece underbody structures could provide two times better protection against blasts than traditional hulls, primarily by eliminating welded seams. In addition to survivability benefits, single-piece hulls can be optimized to reduce vehicle weight and assembly time, and, therefore, overall cost.

The Army is now blast testing the hull to demonstrate its durability. After successful testing, this initiative would open up numerous opportunities for the military to apply single-piece structures to large combat vehicles and other applications.

Alcoa produced two demonstrator forgings at its plant in Cleveland using its 50,000-ton forging press, the world's most advanced hydraulic press. Alcoa's engineers in Cleveland leveraged their expertise and decades of commercial forging experience to produce the hull earlier than the expected deliverable of 18 months.

 http://www.alcoa.com/defense

Aleris introduces aluminum alloy 7017 for commercial plate and defense

Source:

Aleris, Cleveland, Ohio, announces that it now offers a new 7017 aluminum alloy in North America for commercial plate and defense applications. After extensive review and testing of Aleris 7017, the United States Army Research Lab (ARL) issued MIL-DTL-32505 for armor applications. The weld compatibility of the new alloy gives great flexibility to armored vehicle designers, enabling them to incorporate different design characteristics.

The optimum balance of elements that comprise Aleris 7017 provides for superior stress-corrosion cracking resistance while maintaining high strength and weldability properties.

"7017 has a unique combination of properties, making it ideal for the most advanced armor solutions," said Lawrence Kramer, global defense field engineer at Aleris. "These include high strength, weldability, and corrosion resistance. This alloy is currently utilized in Europe and Asia on combat vehicles to achieve superior ballistic protection."

To develop a new alloy for America's ground forces, ARL engineers place the product through a series of standardized tests to validate the material's performance in the ballistic protection level, corrosion resistance, and weldability.

"The analysis has resulted in a significant protective benefit as Aluminum Alloy 7017 has demonstrated a reduction in spallation compared with the legacy AA7039," says Tyrone Jones, mechanical engineer in the Armor Mechanisms Branch. "An armor plate must not only arrest the projectile, but mitigate the kinetic energy before it fatally compromises a protected asset."

Fusion welds of 7017 plate have excellent strength with the weld heat-affected zone strengthening with time. 7017 is weld compatible with the 5xxx series alloys such as 5083 and Alustar 5059, Aleris' high-strength alloy designed to withstand corrosive environments.

www.aleris.com