Aerospace · Tier 1 supplierConsolidating a 23-part titanium actuator from four vendors into one
The challenge
A Tier 1 flight-controls supplier was buying the housing, cover and 21 small parts of an actuator assembly from four shops. Mismatched tolerances between vendors caused a 6% assembly rejection rate, and lead times had stretched to 22 weeks.
Our approach
- Full DFM review of the assembly, not just individual parts
- Redesigned the housing datums so it could be machined in two setups instead of four
- Moved the program to a dedicated 5-axis cell with in-process probing
- AS9102 first-article inspection and delivered as a kitted, serialized assembly
The result
Assembly rejections fell to zero over 18 months. The customer now sends every new actuator program to Torvane at the design stage.
"We used to reconcile four sets of inspection data. Now there's one, and it's always right."Director of Supply Chain, flight-controls supplier



