First in Flight. sponsored Section

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3 4 B u s i n e s s n o r t h C a r o l i n a

First in Flight

N.C. State’s expertise with 3-D printer manufacturing puts the state in a good position to recruit aerospace companies.

First in Flight

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s p o n s o r e d s e c t i o n

Forward-thinking North Carolinians put the state in position

to capitalize on the growing airplane-manufacturing industry.

Ascent

Rapid

I

n 2012, late-night TV show host Jay Leno did a segment about 3-D

printing. A part for Leno’s 1907 White Steam Car broke, and he

couldn’t find a new one. But with a 3-D scanner and printer, Leno

promised, he and anyone else in need of a rare spare part could make a

replacement. Leno’s segment was one of many TV spots and articles that

made up the media hype surrounding 3-D printing a couple of years ago

after the patent expired for a leading 3-D-printer manufacturer. The

pub-lic saw it as a manufacturing revolution that would improve access to

any-one needing the technology. By then, however, 3-D manufacturing was

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First in Flight

S p o n S o r e d S e c t i o n

old news to Ola Harrysson, who had joined the industrial and systems engineering de-partment at North Carolina State University in 2002. His primary task was to build an ad-ditive-manufacturing laboratory. The pro-cess draws its name from the way parts are produced. Instead of taking a piece of metal and cutting away excess to sculpt a part — a process called subtractive manufacturing – additive manufacturing builds the part by adding layer after layer of material. “We had been doing it all along, and no one was pay-ing attention,” he says.

That manufacturing expertise puts North Carolina in a particularly good

position when it comes to aerospace companies, which use specialized parts that can be made more efficiently with the process. The state that was first in flight because of the Wright brothers was also the first to this new style of manufactur-ing. N.C. State purchased the world’s first electron beam melting machine in 2003. As other universities and companies purchased the state-of-the-art manufacturing equip-ment, N.C. State collaborated with them. Its early recognition that the additive process would be the future of manufacturing placed the university at the forefront of research and development of the new technology.

N.C. State’s Center for Additive Manufacturing and Logistics, which Harrysson co-directs, is especially important to the aerospace industry, which is based on precision, not mass production. When parts are made through metal casting, the yield is often low because of mistakes during the process. With 3-D printing, the yield increases, and fewer parts are lost due to procedural error. “In aerospace, you don’t need very many parts because you don’t need a million airplanes,” Harrysson says. “With certain components, you only need a couple of hundred a year. It’s extremely expensive through the traditional

manufac-TIMCO Aviation Services Inc. was acquired in February 2014 by Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co., opening the door to the Asian aerospace market. HaeCo ameriCaS

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First in Flight

3 8 B u s i n e s s n o r t h C a r o l i n a S p o n S o r e d S e c t i o n

First in Flight

turing processes … but [the way we] make parts, we don’t care if you make one or hundreds or a hundred different parts.”

Additive manufacturing produces parts of equal strength compared with those using traditional materials, but at a fraction of the weight. The parts are hollow inside, and the reduced weight means improved fuel efficiency, which translates to lower costs and environmental impact. The additive process also produces parts with internal features, such as cooling channels, that aren’t possible to manufac-ture with traditional approaches.

Harrysson and his team are working to speed up the finished-machining process required to smooth the parts after they’re produced. Some companies he works with can print a part in 24 hours, but it may take four to six weeks to smooth it.

Harrysson plans to reduce that time to 48 or 72 hours by developing technology to automate the finishing.

The N.C. State center gets about three to four visits a week from compa-nies, universities and government agencies interested in 3-D manufacturing. Large aerospace companies in North Carolina, such as Fairfield, Conn.-based General Electric Co., collaborate with N.C. State to improve its processes, develop new technology and help the university stay in touch with industry needs.

NC Aerospace Inc., a nonprofit formed last fall to connect representatives from business, education and government to strengthen the state’s aviation and aero-space industry, focuses on innovation, communication and workforce develop-ment. In 2013, the Greensboro-based

Piedmont Triad Partnership began looking for ways to expand the region’s cluster of aviation-related companies and realized that it was really a statewide need. NC Aerospace aligns the efforts of many agencies and organizations that were performing similar work. “The idea is to communicate to North Carolinians the potential for careers in aviation and aerospace,” says Penny Whiteheart, managing director of NC Aerospace. “Marketing is not just external to the state, but really to make our residents proud of the assets that we have and think about them for the future of the state.”

Aviation and aerospace activity is looking strong throughout the South-east, which many people in the industry expect to become an internationally recognized hub. Chicago-based Boeing

Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Technologies Inc. has plants in Monroe and Richburg, S.C., that produce specialty materials for aerospace and other industries. ati

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u n i o n c o u n t y

Located seven miles southeast of Charlotte and adjacent to I-485, Union County is home to as much

diversity in one county as there is in the state of North Carolina. The Gateway region of the County,

nearest to Charlotte, is a well-developed area, optimally suited for corporate offices and distribution

locations. The central portion of the county has developed a strong base in advanced manufacturing,

most notably in aerospace, and has the state’s highest concentration of aerospace companies with

20 companies in a 7-mile radius. Agriculture reigns supreme on the eastern side of the county, where

production of soybeans, corn and broiler chickens ranks among the highest in North Carolina. These

attributes, along with the County’s strong workforce development pipeline from the public schools,

South Piedmont Community College and Wingate University, combine to make Union County the ideal

location for many manufacturers to call home.

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Tel: (704) 282-5780

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Co. announced a $1 billion expansion of its North Charleston, S.C., operation in 2013 and the addition of 2,000 jobs over eight years. Last fall, Honda Aircraft Co. announced a $19 million expansion at its world headquarters at Piedmont Triad International Airport. GE Aviation is investing $195 million in its North Carolina operations from 2013 through 2017, including construction of a $125 million, 170,000-square-foot plant in Asheville that opened in October. The plant was the first in the world to mass-produce engine components made of advanced ceramic-matrix composite materials.

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr co-sponsors the annual North Carolina Aerospace Supplier and Advanced Manufacturing Summit, which encourages collaboration between suppliers and manufacturers. This year, the August summit will partner with South Carolina. “The only hurdle that I see is, for a state whose motto is ‘First in Flight,’ we have to take first in flight and

make it our vision of the future, not just history,” Burr said in an interview. “Aviation is hard to envision, except for the finished product, and you don’t see airplanes flying out of North Carolina that were assembled here.” For aviation and aerospace compa-nies, finding skilled employees can be challenging. The North Carolina Commu-nity College System is a strong selling point when companies look to locate in North Carolina. The 58 colleges often work with industries to develop curricula for local companies. “The other 49 states claim that the North Carolina Community College structure is an unfair economic-development tool,” Burr jokes. “[The system] has the ability to pretrain, to retrain and to educate any age of workforce, and there aren’t many states that have total coverage of their state with the ability to do that.”

Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College opened its Compos-ites Training Center of Excellence in November because of GE Aviation’s

expansion in the county. The school will offer assessment and training of potential employees, plus 80 hours of training before new hires start working. The center will also offer a public, continuing-education class on manufacturing processes and working with composite materials.

South Piedmont Community College and its Aerospace and Advanced Manu-facturing Training Center is Union County’s best recruiting tool, says Chris Platé, executive director of economic development and aviation for Monroe-Union County Economic Development. “They have really developed their programs to help with critical thinking and understanding the bigger picture and working in incredibly tight tolerances,” Platé says. “When we talk to people, they understand that we wouldn’t have this cluster without the support that South Piedmont provides.”

Union County has the highest concentration of aerospace companies in

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First in Flight

the Carolinas, with 20 in a 7-mile radius that account for more than 3,000 aero-space-related jobs. The cluster began as an idea in 2002, when Platé and other county officials were seeking a manufacturing industry with hard-to-duplicate intellectual property and little chance of being overrun by lower-cost foreign rivals. They settled on aerospace. Platé remembers going to the Monroe City Council soon after Sept. 11, 2001, with the plan. The council members looked at him like he was crazy. “We went in against the flow,” he says. “People were leaving aerospace, and we were coming in.”

The effort can be turbulent, of course. Helicopter-engine maker Turbomeca USA, based in Grand Prairie, Texas, said in November that it would close its Monroe location, which opened in 2008 to increase Turbomeca’s worldwide parts-production capacity. But demand for new engine production has decreased, and the plant will phase out operations over 12 months, affecting 112 jobs. Turbomeca is Union County’s first aero-space-industry loss, Platé says, but he expects other manufacturing companies will quickly absorb the displaced employ-ees. Platé and Union County are focused on diversifying to make the area less susceptible to downturns. Little Ferry, N.J.-based Midway Aircraft Instrument Corp. recently relocated to Monroe, adding 36 jobs and an investment of $2.3 million. Midway overhauls, repairs and maintains aircraft equipment. “Our challenge is to constantly bring in more of the supply chain,” Platé says.

UTC Aerospace Systems, also in Union County, designs, manufactures and services integrated systems and compo-nents for the aerospace and defense industries. A division of Hartford, Conn.-based United Technologies Corp., the company formed its North Carolina headquarters in 2012, when Goodrich and Hamilton Sundstrand combined opera-tions. It has about 300 employees at its headquarters in Charlotte, 700 in Wilson and 200 in Monroe. One of the company’s biggest accomplishments last year was

We grew up in the

Piedmont Triad.

Fr

From a start with a single

hangar in 1990, to becoming

a part of one of the largest

aircraft support companies

in the world today, HAECO

Americas has always called

North Carolina home.

www.haeco.aero

- Airframe Maintenance

- Line Maintenance

- Aircraft Interiors

South Piedmont Community College’s aerospace training center is a great recruiting tool for Union County. SoUtH PiedmoNt CommUNity College

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providing control systems — including thermal, pressure and power control and switching hardware — for NASA’s Orion spacecraft. The company also provides several systems on Airbus’ A320neo, which made its first flight in September. UTC has more than 130 development programs on 57 aircraft platforms, says Brian Brandewie, senior vice president of aircraft systems. The company’s commercial sector is its fastest-growing division, and Brandewie expects that growth to continue, especially in the Southeast. “Certainly we see that the Boeing facility has brought intense focus to aerospace here,” he says. “With a big facility like that … satellite facilities pop up right away. The impact of having that facility here is tremendous. I would have to believe [the Southeast sector] is growing at a faster rate than some sectors. We’re living it every day.” UTC is committed to employee development with a scholar program that offers employees full tuition, which they can use to obtain a degree in any field.

Many local manufacturing companies in the state have global reach. In February 2014, Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company Ltd. acquired TIMCO Aviation Services Inc., a maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in Greensboro. As part of the transition, small teams of employees have visited HAECO operations in Asia to learn about their best practices. HAECO also sends employees to observe opera-tions in Greensboro. “Each team comes back with a list of what they can do better,” says Kip Blakely, vice president of industry and government relations for HAECO. “You can see the change bubbling up from inside.” HAECO has about 1,800 employ-ees at its Greensboro location as well as about 175 at its Cabin Solutions aircraft-interiors operation in Wallburg, about 25 miles west of Greensboro. Cabin Solutions is its fastest-growing unit. Employees who were with TIMCO before the acquisition see the new ownership as an opportunity to expand into Asian markets, and Blakely

says the company is already winning more Asian projects because of its new owner. “We were owned by a hedge fund previously, and we didn’t want a financial owner anymore,” he says. “We wanted someone in [the industry], and that was exactly what we got, and the results are what we were hoping for, and we just expect that to grow.” Blakely, who is also the board chairman for the nonprofit NC Aerospace, says he hopes the organi-zation can develop a center to connect the industry with education that will support subtractive manufacturing and help companies transition to more modern, additive manufacturing.

Like many companies, workforce development is a key issue for HAECO, and Blakely works with surrounding commu-nity colleges and public-school systems to educate students about opportunities in advanced manufacturing. Blakely attributes the shortage of skilled labor to two primary factors: the aging workforce and the influx

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FlyFromPTI.com

2015 NORTH CAROLINA AEROSPACE SUPPLIER AND

ADVANCED MANUFACTURING (ASAM) SUMMIT

Hosted by Senator Richard Burr, the North Carolina Military Business Center, the North Carolina Aerospace Initiative, the North Carolina Aerospace Alliance and the

North Carolina Department of Commerce. Program: The North Carolina Aerospace Supplier and Advanced Manufacturing (ASAM) Summit is a statewide, business development and teaming event focused on current and future defense, commercial and general aviation business opportunities. The ASAM will showcase North Carolina companies engaged in advanced manufacturing and aerospace-related activities, and will connect North Carolina suppliers and service providers with national aerospace primes, first tier subs and both military and civilian aerospace customers. Senator Richard Burr will open the Summit with keynote remarks. The North Carolina Military Business Center (NCMBC) is a statewide business development entity of the North Carolina Community College System with 14 offices across the state. The mission of the NCMBC is to leverage military and other federal business opportunities to expand the economy, grow jobs and improve quality of life in North Carolina. For more information, visit: http://www.ncmbc.us/2015ASAM.php

When:

August 5-6, 2015

Charlotte, North Carolina

Where:

877-245-5520

of aviation-industry jobs. When veterans came back from Vietnam, aviation was a preferred field, but now those workers are poised to retire. The state struggles to keep up with the new jobs created on top of vacancies left by the wave of retirees. One way to close the workforce gap is to recruit students for careers in aviation, aerospace and advanced manufacturing early — as young as middle school. Andrews Aviation Academy in High Point is one of only 50 high school aviation programs in the United States. The academy gives ninth- through 12th-graders the opportunity to participate in a specialized learning curriculum, take part in job shadowing and internships and receive college credit. It works with Guilford Technical Community College, which opened the T.H. Davis Aviation Center next to Piedmont Triad International Airport in August. Andrews Aviation has about 150 students and plans to double freshman enrollment next year because of increased interest. “We’re hopeful that many if not all of them will come to work for us full time once they finish their certification or degree,” Blakely says.

In eastern North Carolina, the STEM East program, a project of the NCEast Alliance, is a public-private partnership that connects students, educators and employers; aligns the education curricu-lum with local industry needs; and focuses on developing skills in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. Antici-pated growth of the region’s aerospace industry, which employs about 12,000 people in the region, sparked develop-ment of the program. The NCEast Alliance is a not-for-profit, regional economic-development agency that covers a wide area, from the edge of Research Triangle Park to the coast, after merging with NC Northeast, another economic-development agency, on Jan. 1. “The challenge is sometimes being able to think about what are the advantages of being on the periphery and … coordinat-ing and utilizcoordinat-ing the asset base that is RTP,” says John Chaffee, CEO of the alliance. “It’s not only the assets in your

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Your SucceSS HaS

No Limits

For more information, see

abtech.edu/aviation or call 828.398.7286

Pending approval by the southern Association of Colleges and schools Commission on Colleges

CONNECTING AND STRENGTHENING

THE AEROSPACE INDUSTRY ACROSS

NORTH CAROLINA

WWW.NCAEROSPACE.ORG

own community or county, it’s what’s around you that helps you craft your strategy.” Chaffee’s organization put together a grant program to reward manufacturing companies that earned required certifications to become suppliers for the aerospace industry. North Carolina Manufacturing Inc. in Goldsboro, an automotive-parts manufacturer, obtained AS9100 certification, which many aero-space companies require of their suppliers. When Wichita, Kan.-based Spirit AeroSys-tems Inc. opened a location at the N.C. Global Transpark in Kinston in 2010, Chaffee introduced them to officials at North Carolina Manufacturing, which became a direct supplier for Spirit.

Pemmco Manufacturing Inc. in Asheboro followed a similar path to working with the aerospace industry. The company started in 1960 as Allen Precision Industries, which manufactured parts for the textile industry. Rick Powell bought the company in 2006 with three business partners. At the time he pur-chased it, the business employed 22 people; it now has 56. About two years ago, Pemmco got its aerospace supplier certification. Pemmco works with Ran-dolph Community College to acquire the skilled labor it needs. The company hires students part time while they’re in school and then offers many of the students full-time positions upon graduation. “They can learn in school, but they’re also getting the real-time machining time at Pemmco,” says Brian Powell, Pemmco sales manager and Rick Powell’s son. “It’s an extremely difficult business to be in, aerospace, but if you’re good at it, the profit margins are there. The paperwork side of things is very tedious. It’s a big learning curve going from straight manufacturing to manufacturing aero-space.” Manufacturing parts for aviation and aerospace makes up 15% to 18% of the company’s business, he says, and 80% of those parts go to companies in North Carolina. He expects Pemmco’s aerospace business to at least double within the next two to three years.