Thompson Receives Silver Boeing Performance Excellence Award
Friction welding machine manufacturer Thompson (Halesowen, UK) has been awarded a prestigious accolade by Boeing in recognition of its high standards as a supplier. It is the second prize for Thompson so far this year as it has just been presented with a Queen?s Award for Enterprise after increasing overseas sales of its friction welding machines by 163 percent in the last three years.
The UK-based engineering company, whose US office is situated in Michigan, has received the Silver Boeing Performance Excellence Award for its work in the development of the linear friction welding process for producing aircraft components.
Thompson has also added a number of new products to its range including the E100, the first commercially-available linear friction welding machine in the world. The linear process is suitable for use in almost any type of manufacturing industry including aerospace, automotive, medical, power generation and other high-quality engineering applications such as Formula 1 components.
Previously, friction welding could only be used on joints that had at least one round part, but now Thompson says the method can be used on almost any shape. The advantages of this solid state process also means that similar and dissimilar materials such as aluminium and copper can be completely joined.
Thompson claims its new E100 machine has already set a new record for the largest-ever weld by rapidly joining a 10,000 mm2 titanium component using the linear friction welding process, surpassing the previous milestone believed to be around 5500 mm2.
?The Boeing award, following on so soon after the receipt of the Queen?s Award, represents another fantastic achievement by our people and further underlines Thompson?s commitment to developing new markets and processes in response to the demands of our customers,? commented Alan Shilton, Thompson?s managing director.
