Aero Industry Prepares for Take-Off at Starrag Event

The Starrag-Tornos Group recently welcomed guests to its 25^th annual ‘Aerospace and Turbine Technology Days’ event hosted by Starrag in Switzerland.

The much-revered event welcomed some of the most prominent OEMs and supply chain partners from the world of aerospace manufacturing, R&D and product development arenas. Celebrating the success of the event on its second day, Martin Buyle, CEO of the Starrag-Tornos Group said: “The Aerospace Days event has become a tradition. It’s an environment where people want to learn about technology. We position ourselves as technology leaders – and not just machine or equipment sellers. One of the means to demonstrate this expertise is to bring together specialists from all over the world to learn about what we can offer and also provide an environment where engineers can learn from their peers and what they do. This event really is like a family that we bring together – and we bring a lot of technologies together. It’s like a family or friends meeting but it’s spiced up with technology that we bring along. That is why it’s worthwhile and why so many people come every year.”

“There has been a lot of talk about economic concerns and possible recession but the aerospace industry works very differently at the moment. We are still witnessing some post-Covid industry effects where companies are still investing but there are also some commonly known hiccups in the commercial aerospace industry. Overall, the aerospace industry is doing particularly well. The first day of our event was particularly positive with over 100 customers attending from 38 different countries. This gave us a great opportunity to show our technological capabilities at what is a truly international event. We had some very interesting presentations from our team as well as our technology partners that fully engaged our attendees.”

Looking at the format of the event, Alexander Attenberger from the Starrag-Tornos Group adds: “At this event, we have 13 different stations and just a few of the highlights include integrated automation with a cobot on a blade machining cell. This is unique because even with automation, the footprint of the machine would be no larger than if it didn’t have automation.”

“The overall story is automation digitalisation. With our famous ECOSpeed series, we have increased productivity by more than 20%. On our STC 1250HD, we have been able to improve the cutting rate for titanium machining with lower cutting tool consumption. This is giving reduced cost per part for the customer. The automation, the ECOSpeed series and the STC 1250HD are just three of the many highlights at this event.”

As Alexander continues: “For each of the 13 stations, we have a technology partner, and we share the stations to show the customer what is possible with a completely integrated package. The theme is not just about the machine, the measurement or the automation, it’s about the combinations – and technology integration of all of the integration partners. We have worked with these partners for many years, so it’s a genuine partnership in both directions with a huge benefit to the customer.”

Commenting on the aerospace demonstrations, Alexander says: “The ‘Aerospace and Turbine Technology Days’ is a huge highlight for our business as we really get the ‘Who’s Who’ of the aerospace industry attending as our guests. We have guests from almost 40 countries who are all coming to our event to discuss their issues and how we can resolve them.”

From an innovation perspective, Markus Ess, the Director of Technology for the BUH and BMS at the Starrag-Tornos Group says: “It’s great to see all of the customers show an interest in the solution that we have at this event. We have tried to not only bring the best machines to this event, but also the best solutions for our customers. For me, as a Technical Director, the important thing is to understand what the customer is doing with their machine and with their parts – so we can get a complete picture of their activities. One of the key highlights we have at the event is the STC 1250HD. This machine is focused on machining titanium structural parts. So, if you want to do that you need a very robust and heavy machine that offers hydrostatic guideways that delivers loads of vibration dampening and lots of stiffness. The machine guideways are 10 times larger than a regular guideway machine, so you can really take deep and heavy cuts – bringing massive roughing performance to customers’ applications.”

“At this event, we are machining a titanium strut part on the machine and it is effectively the engine beam where the jet engines are mounted. What we are demonstrating with this example is not just the machine but also our knowledge of critical aerospace applications. This solution encompasses everything from the cutting tool selection and strategy to the machining strategy where we are reducing cycle times by over 30% whilst enhancing performance and reducing costs.”

The next Starrag TechDays Event will take place in Chemnitz, Germany on the 5^th and 6^th of November. This event will bring together some of the new compact machines as well as a large new machine whilst also presenting solution integration with technology partners such as Blum Novotest, FANUC, Siemens, Fastems and Haimer. If you would like to attend this exciting event, you can register your interest here: www.starrag.com/en-us/tdc