Honing a Life-Saver for Aerospace Component Maker

01.07.2020

Sonic Industries, part of the Sargent Aerospace & Defense Company, uses Sunnen SV-1000 to achieve performance-critical ID tolerances and finishes on life-saving fuse pins, reducing cycle times by 75%

Knowing when to "hold 'em," and when to "fold 'em" takes on new meaning when referring to the fuse pins designed to hold a jet engine on a wing, but to break away in emergency situations, allowing the engine to separate from the wing to prevent catastrophic structural failure and fires.

That is the performance dilemma faced by the highly engineered, precisely manufactured aerospace components produced by Sonic Industries.

To achieve this delicate "hold-or-fold" balance, Sonic relies on a new Sunnen SV-1000 honing system to produce the 5-to-7-micron ID tolerance and proprietary finish critical to the part's performance. The CNC-controlled SV-1000 also allowed Sonic to meet increased customer demand when it replaced a manual honing system, reducing cycle times from 40 minutes to 10 and increasing productivity from nine to 40 parts per day.

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