The Monrovia, California facility of Ducommun AeroStructures provides complete aerospace composite and metal-bond services for:
- sheet metal fabrication
- machining
- core cutting and milling
- chemical processing
- layup and bonding
- autoclave curing
- painting
- final assembly and inspection.
We manufacture parts for some of most respected companies in the aerospace industry. Specific parts include:
- rotor blades
- flight control surfaces
- engine components
- panels and structures for military aircraft.
Lay-up and bonding
Composite and adhesive materials used include 250° F and 350° F curing systems in the form of film adhesives, graphite, Kevlar, and fiberglass. Lay-up capabilities are aided by the use of specialized equipment that includes a computer-aided composite ply cutting machine with nesting module, a clicker press and a die cutter.
Clean Room
Monrovia has environmentally-controlled, clean room facilities of approximately 50,000 square feet. Detail, subassembly, and main lay-up operations occur in these areas.
Monrovia uses its weekly capacity analysis capability to assess current and future controlled contamination lay-up area capacity versus load. Monrovia's controlled lay-up area has no overloaded conditions, with ample room for new program requirements.
Autoclave
Ducommun AeroStructures operates seven autoclaves in the Monrovia facility, up to 12 feet diameter and 40 feet in length, that cure large parts and efficiently support high volume production of smaller parts. The autoclaves are equipped with state-of-the-art computerized monitoring systems. These systems enable the bonding of complex cure cycles as required to meet customer requirements. Four overhead crane systems support autoclave loading and unloading. Two staging areas are also available for tooling accessibility to meet the daily requirement of bond schedules.
Processing
Monrovia's clean line metal processing area has no overloaded conditions, with ample room for new program requirements. The 16,000 square foot aluminum treatment department is fully integrated to do BAC 5555 phosphoric acid anodizing and chromic acid anodizing. Situated inline and in process order are (12) 4'W x 7'D x 33'L processing tanks and an 8' x 33' drying oven.
Monrovia's 8,000 square foot steel and specialty metals processing department is fully integrated to etch 300 series stainless steels, conversion coat titanium, and passivate stainless steels. This department chemically processes other specialty metals including tungsten, Inconel, and nickel. Within each of the process areas is a controlled contamination area for adhesive prime application and curing.
Our Monrovia facility is qualified to Boeing BAC 5555, MDHS HP4-35, HP4-49, HP4-120, and BHT BPS4352.
Sheet metal fabrication
This facility has extensive sheet metal fabrication capabilities.
Machining
28 CNC machining center tools for aluminum, steel, titanium, and honeycomb. Bed lengths up to 60 feet
Final assembly
The Monrovia facility has demonstrated expertise in large, complex metal and composite airfoil shapes and structural components and its facilities are capable of accepting classified programs. Assembly of large complex structures is a proven core capability. Ducommun AeroStructures builds helicopter rotor blades, flight control surfaces, engine components, panels and structures for commercial and military aircraft including:
- C-17
- F-22/JSF
- Bell 206, 212, 412, 609
- AH 64 Apache
- UH-1
- AE 3007
- MD90
- Boeing 737, 747, 767, 777
Quality control
ISO9002, Boeing D1-9000 Rev. A, and Mil-Q-9858A certified, Composite Structures is supported by sophisticated inspection equipment. Quality inspection includes C-Scan ultrasonic, and gantry squirter NDI scanning systems, in addition to a fully equipped Process Control Laboratory.
Engineering services
Engineering
- material, processes and producibility
- high performance materials knowledge (carbon, fiberglass, epoxies, bismaleimides)
- IPT experience
- material review board authority
Manufacturing engineering staff with diversified aerospace
Manufacturing Experience Base
- composite fiber placement
- filament winding
- tape wrapping
- CNC ply cutting
- composite, metal, honeycomb, bonding
- chemical processing and finishing
- mechanical processing and assembly
- CNC machining and fabrication
Tool Design
- CATIA, unigraphics, solidworks, autocad
NC Programming
- CATIA NC 3/4/5 axis milling
- unigraphics 3/4/5 axis milling
- vericut 4.4 verification through machine builder
Software services
The Monrovia facility offers CATIA and Unigraphics, 3D CAD system, MSC/NASTRAN engineering analysis software, finite elements structural and stress analysis, and software translators for Electronic Data Interchange with a wide variety of customers.
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