New generation OTEC stream finishing machine for aerospace

“The new SF is particularly important for our aerospace work to ensure the precise profile tolerances now demanded for turbine blades are met. For example, the control provided by the new step motor technology allows us to repeatedly change and lock the angle of the blades as they pass through the process media to carefully manage the finishing effect on vital leading and trailing edges,” explained Jamie Phillips, Operations Manager.

With six other stream finishing machines, along with drag finishing and centrifugal finishing systems, the AS9100 and ISO9001 accredited company has capacity, depth of knowledge and expertise to provide a comprehensive range of surface finishing services. These include deburring and mirror-finish polishing to smoothing and polishing, as well as important edge rounding. For aerospace, this covers not just turbine blades but also complete blisks, gear wheels, cutting tools, fasteners and extremely thin parts.

“Problem solving is an integral to our service. We work closely with aerospace customer engineers, including in research and development for which the SF is ideal, to create better parts by applying surface finishing techniques that meet their commercial objectives. Often we are able to achieve a quality of surface finish in minutes (sometimes seconds) that can’t be matched by hand or other traditional methods. Furthermore, processes are precisely repeatable to ensure total quality consistency and confidence to achieve surfaces with values of up to Ra 0.01,” added Phillips.

Fintek is well known for its work with top level teams in motorsport, where degrees of perfection translate into reliability and 1000’s of a second on track. This rapid technological test bed enables the company to constantly expand its surface finishing knowledge base and apply this to other precision industries such as aerospace, medical devices and more.