Ardel Engineering Blog

To become part of the aerospace industry, companies must attain several

Aluminum once made up the bulk of the material used in aerospace applications. Aluminum accounts for as little as 20% of the materials used in a typical jet today, however. Composite materials, carbon-reinforced polymers, and honeycomb materials are increasingly seeing usage across the aerospace industry because of the demand for lighter-weight aircraft.

There are some exciting possibilities on the horizon for commercial space flight.

Last month NASA awarded funding to Boeing and SpaceX for both companies to continue working on their “space taxis” which could carry astronauts to and from space stations. This month Boeing has reached its final commercial crew design milestone for its CST-100. This means that the company can now begin planning for full-scale flight tests article construction.

Few would take exception to the fact that the United States Air Force (USAF) is – collectively – the most powerful aerial combat instrument in the world.

Time and again in recent decades, American air supremacy has won the day in conflicts such as the First and Second Gulf Wars, as well as in Kosovo and Afghanistan. The names of America’s fighters, bombers, attack, recon, electronic detection, and transport aircraft are the stuff of late 20th and early 21st century legend: F-15s, F-16s, F-18s, C-5s, C-130s, A-10s, B-1s, B-2s, and B-52s have struck fear in the hearts of America’s enemies and have been “welcome news” indeed for many an American army or marine grunt pinned down by enemy gunfire in cities, villages, plains, and crevices across the Middle East and beyond.

Being an ISO-certified, long-proven manufacturer of components for aerospace, we at Ardel wanted to inform our blog readers on one of the more recent trends in aircraft design.

We’re not talking about the fact you have to pay for your “complimentary” audio headset on most flights these days. We’re talking about reducing the overall tonnage of airplanes in order for them to attain greater mechanical performance and efficiency.

As part of an ongoing discussion about the various materials (both metallic and thermoplastic) that we work with at Ardel Engineering, we would like to discuss our experience working with PEEK polymer thermoplastics. 

Since PEEK – the acronym stands for Polyether ether ketone – is such a structurally robust thermoplastic, unusually resistant to high thermal concentrations, high pressure, and high levels of corrosion, it is sought after by performance-intensive industries of all stripes. 

Its uses in pistons for automotive engines, biochemical and analytical chemical separation processes, and even subatomic particle accelerators are all well-documented. Its expensiveness and its relative scarcity place it beyond the price-range of a lot of clientele. Usually the province of 1st tier suppliers, major international companies, and well-established research universities (as well as national and state governments), PEEK is something we excel at in several of our own fields of expertise.

Ardel can say with empirical certainty that our business traffic has picked up considerably. 

Whatever these unforeseeable times have in store for our country; whether we are still in the midst of a recession, a Great Recession, a recovery from recession, or a “dead cat bounce” that will ultimately lead us back into yet another stretch of recession; whatever the case may be for America, we at Ardel can say with empirical certainty that our business traffic has picked up considerably. 

New companies and clients in sectors we previously had little contact with seem suddenly to be knocking at our gates, asking for engineering advice, input, and – of course – our time and investment in their individual projects. We’ve been more than happy to oblige. Without naming any names, aerospace orders seem to be flocking our way, as are orders from companies involved with precision metrology. Word seems to be getting around that our engineering staff and state-of-the-art machinery aren’t just idle social media chitchat; that in fact these things are measured capabilities we are more than able to back up with results.

First discovered in 1951 by Nobel Prize-winning German chemist Hermann Staudinger, and first synthesized by DuPont chemists the year after, Delrin, otherwise known by its scientific name of polyoxymethylene, has been manufactured on an industrial scale since 1960.

Celebrated for its structural rigidity, stability, and light weight, in addition to its wear resistance and electrical conductivity, Delrin is a thermoplastic used for making both moldable grade and machine-able grade components for durable, high-performance parts. It comes in various colors and can be blended with other compounds to improve its mechanical properties.