Services

Honeycomb Manufacturing

For thirty years, MachineTek has focused on one specialized service: Core component fabrication for the aerospace composite industry. Dealing primarily with structural honeycomb but occasionally specialty foam core and even bonded panels, MachineTek performs the challenging processes required to convert sheets or blocks of material into the finished core components our customers require.

All core components are fabricated to order based upon customers’ CAD models and specifications. Whether the customer provides the core material or it is procured by MachineTek from a commercial vendor to the customer’s specifications, the material is received, inspected, processed, and the finished components are inspected, packaged and shipped to our customers’ exacting requirements with minimum turnaround time.

Honeycomb Fabrication

MachineTek profiles aluminum honeycomb of various cell sizes, foil thicknesses, and alloys. In addition to profiling expanded aluminum honeycomb, MachineTek often finds it advisable to profile aluminum in the unexpanded state, which is then followed by expansion to create the desired cross-section.

Foam Core Machining

While MachineTek’s primary focus is honeycomb core material, MachineTek also performs precision machining of low, medium, and high density specialty foam which may be used as composite panel core materials. High-density tooling foam is often used by MachineTek as a holding fixture, heat-forming fixture, or inspection fixture.  These fixtures are designed in-house for each specific…

Bonded Panel Machining

Whether the core material is honeycomb or foam and with skin materials of aluminum, carbon fiber, or other specialized materials, MachineTek can edge trim, undercut, and create thru holes or recessed cutouts in these bonded panels.

Engineering Support

In today’s world of computer-aided design, most current programs involve CAD files describing the core components.  For those legacy programs utilizing two-dimensional drawings (paper or pdf drawings), this format can be used for quoting and even part fabrication, though CAD files will normally be created from these drawings to support CNC fabrication. MachineTek accepts various …

Tooling & Fixtures

MachineTek frequently designs tooling and fixtures to assist in the fabrication of honeycomb and foam core details.