Primus Aerospace's machine shop is highly experienced with aerospace unique alloys

CNC machining and turning of aerospace specific materials is a must for customers who design and purchase parts at the leading edge of performance.  Primus Aerospace possesses unique experience and expertise across a variety of exotic alloys & materials to which many companies do not have access.  This experience has been gained experientially through a deep history of completing aerospace projects for high performance application as well as maintaining an on-staff engineering team.  Primus’s machining team produces products As a result, Primus Aerospace has the necessary experience & capacity to handle unique applications that require expert handling of these exotic alloys.

Handling and Machining Aerospace Exotic Alloys

Materials characterized by high-level resistance to the extremes of heat, cold & corrosive environments as well as long-term wear capacity often fall within the class of exotic alloys. Modern aerospace, defense & space programs require unique characteristics for highly complex components, which in turn requires the use of specialized aerospace alloys. These materials may include, but are not limited to:

  • Aerospace machining raw materialsBeryllium
    • 172 Beryllium Copper
    • AMS 4533 Beryllium Copper has excellent cryogenic characteristics, which are especially important for spacecraft and satellite applications
  • Ceramics (including Macor, Alumina, Aluminum nitride, Boro nitride, Pyrex, Vycor, Graphite, Mullite, Mycalex, Steatite, Zirconia)
  • Cobalt – cobalt-based alloys are often found in turbine components for their wear resistance
  • Haynes 230 – a nickel-chromium-tungsten-molybdenum alloy that resists oxidation at high temperatures (up to 2100 F) which is often used in critical aerospace parts where low heat expansion is desired
  • Hastelloy – nickel-chromium-iron-molybdenum alloy that has been solid solution strengthened for exceptional stress corrosion resistance and high temperature strength
  • Hiperco – iron-cobalt soft magnetic alloy, often used in stator lamination on motors and generators for aerospace APUs (auxiliary power units)
  • Inconel
  • Invar – Invar is used for aerospace and defense applications when low thermal expansion is critical to component performance;  this is common for optical housings for defense applications
  • Kovar – Also known as ASTM F15
  • Monel – a nickel-copper alloy used in applications demanding excellent corrosion resistance
    • Alloy 400
    • Alloy K-500
    • Alloy R-405
  • MP35N –  a nickel-cobalt base alloy known by it’s manufacturer as a “super alloy,” originally developed for space craft components for the Space Shuttle
  • MP159 –  cobalt-nickel-chromium
  • Tantalum – a natural metal that is often extracted from tin production, tantalum is often used in aircraft turbine fins due to its high melting point
  • Titanium
  • Tungsten – particularly good for rotating components or parts found on rotorcraft (helicopters) due to its high density
  • 350 Maraging Steel

 

Quality Assurance for Exotic Alloys

Primus Aerospace’s quality and supply chain functions are skilled in the measurement and assessment of incoming raw materials.  Additionally, our in-house quality assurance lab and external testing partners can check:

  • Density
  • Strength
  • Hardness
  • Elasticity
  • Ductility
  • Malleability
  • Conductivity
  • Thermal expansion
  • Toughness vs. Brittleness

In addition to exotic alloys, Primus specializes in aerospace manufacturing with standard aerospace materials, such as:

  • Aluminum
    • Aluminum 2014
    • Aluminum 2404
    • Aluminum 5052
    • Aluminum 6061
    • Aluminum 7050
    • Aluminum 7068
    • Aluminum 7075
  • Steel
    • Carbon steel
    • Nickel steel
    • Stainless Steel
    • Molybdenum
    • Chrome-molybdenum steel
    • Inconel (nickel-chromium-iron alloy)