Aerospace manufacturer cleared for take-off

Filtermist units on two machines at Senior Aerospace

In the aerospace industry, compliance with standards is not just a requirement in manufacturing, but a culture embedded in every aspect of a business. With accreditations that include ISO9001, ISO14001, ISO45001, and AS:9100, as well as multiple OEM approvals, Senior Aerospace Weston places significant importance on workplace standards — which is why the Lancashire company has installed more than 50 Filtermist oil mist filters on its machine tools.

Working primarily with OEMs like Rolls-Royce, Airbus, MTU Engines, Spirit Aerosystems, and many other prestigious customers, Senior Aerospace Weston manufactures a variety of aerofoil and aerostructure components for various platforms in the commercial aviation market. Founded in 1937 and acquired by Senior plc in 2011, the Earby-based manufacturer is now part of an FTSE 250-listed group with over 6,800 employees in 12 countries.

As part of a leading global aerospace manufacturing group with three to five-axis machining and grinding, CAD/CAM, assembly, NDT, surface treatment and robotic polishing — achieving standards is critical.

Gary Bell Senior Aerospace Weston’s HSE manager. said: “We believe in maintaining high standards and a clean working environment is essential to ensure that we can produce our high-specification components. We make a variety of aerospace components for different aircraft programmes and work with a range of materials. This is predominantly aluminium, but we also work with titanium, bronze, nimonic, Inconel and steel. We have many different types of CNC machining centres and each machine is specified to manufacture certain types of components.”

With Filtermist extraction units, including the FX6002 and FX7002 on 58 of the company’s machine tools, it is imperative that oil mist is efficiently extracted from the machines. He continued: “The type of high-speed machining that we undertake produces oil mist that needs removing from the working environment. Our first thought was to look at the industry-leading standards, and Filtermist was the name that first came up. We engaged with them straight away, and they were extremely helpful in giving us some advice and support. They were able to come on-site and carry out a free survey so that they were able to specify exactly what equipment would be available to support our needs.”

Leading manufacturers
With machine tools from leading manufacturers such as Matsuura, DN Solutions via Mills CNC, Grob and Hermle among others on site, Mr Bell continued: “In total, we have 58 Filtermist extraction units. Some machines require multiple Filtermist units to be installed to ensure the volume is extracted quickly and efficiently. We have a huge variety of machines, and the Filtermist units are flexible enough to accommodate the different types, sizes and requirements of those machines. We have machines that are large in scale, so we needed something that was able to extract from all those different types of scenarios effectively.”

Pictured right: Filtermist extraction units on the machine tools at Senior Weston Aerospace

Discussing the maintenance requirements and the ongoing relationship with Filtermist, Mr Bell said: “The beauty of the Filtermist system is it is easily serviceable, so we can specify whether the units are standalone or mounted to the equipment. They are easily accessible for the service engineers to come in and quickly replace any components. The Filtermist units are fitted with F monitors, which are a really easy-to-use system. The operators can see at a glance using the traffic light system whether there are any issues with the effectiveness of the extraction.”

Using the globally recognised ‘traffic light’ system of coloured warning lights to alert machine operators when the unit needs servicing, the F Monitor measures velocity pressure to check the airflow through the Filtermist oil mist collector is correct. The Bluetooth-enabled F Monitor 2 measures airflow and time, and the F Monitor 2+ also monitors vibration and motor temperature — making it even easier to identify when the Filtermist unit needs servicing. For existing customers, the F Monitors can be retrofitted to the complete Filtermist range and are available as an optional accessory on all new Filtermist units.

Mr Bell concluded: “We can hold a small stock of Filtermist equipment on site, and our maintenance teams can react and make sure that the equipment is kept in a serviceable, well-maintained and efficient manner. Maintaining and keeping clean working areas is vital to ensuring that we can continue to supply good quality parts — a clean workshop goes hand-in-hand with being a leading aerospace manufacturer.”