Shimtech Industries Ltd. has hiked the size of composite aerospace components it can build by acquiring Angeles Composites Technologies Inc.
Shimtech of Middlesex, England, said June 15 that the purchase of ACTI of Port Angeles, Wash., means it can make composite structures up to 40 feet long by 10 feet wide. ACTI's two autoclaves, as well as being large, can also heat up to 800° F to 850° F at pressures of 200 to 250 pounds per square inch, allowing Shimtech to “join a small group of specialized suppliers worldwide with the capability to cure at the highest possible temperatures required by higher performance thermoset materials and resin systems.”
ACTI's facility of 100,000 square feet includes clean room space and a controlled environment test laboratory. It has approvals to add another 140,000 square feet at its campus, near Boeing Co.'s Seattle complex. It was owned by an Alaskan native America corporation, which is no longer involved in the business, according to Shimtech CEO Howard Kimberley.
The ACTI acquisition comes about a year and a half after Shimtech's purchase of Performance Plastics Inc. of San Diego, which has expanded since that deal. Kimberley said in an email correspondence that ACTI will not be merged with PPI but both will be part of Shimtech's composite engineered structures division.
Shimtech also recently relocated its Lamsco West Inc. subsidiary to a larger, 75,000-square-foot building that doubles Lamsco's production capacity.
ACTI's major customers include Chicago-based Boeing, Bombardier Inc. of Montreal, and Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Md. Typical thermoset composite products include flight control surfaces, nacelles, panels and doors.
“As well as more than doubling our current autoclave and lay-up capacity, the acquisition of ACTI provides a significant up-shift in the size, scale and complexity of Shimtech's capability,” Kimberley said in a news release.
Privately owned Shimtech runs seven facilities in North America and Europe and employs about 500.
