Millions of Consumable Products for the Aerospace Industry

Most of what goes out our door is aluminum, and the first question is never the shape. It's the alloy and temper. Get that wrong, and the print doesn't matter.

2024 in T3, T3511, or T4 is still what most structural angle, tee, zee, and channel gets made from. It's been on airframes since the 1930s for a reason: it tolerates damage, and it holds up under fatigue. 7075 shows up where the designer needs more strength per pound: stringers, spar caps, longerons, seat tracks. T6 and T6511 are the common tempers; when somebody's worried about stress corrosion, they'll call out T73511 instead, and we stock both. 6061-T6 and 6063 cover everything that isn't primary structure: ducting, interior framing, tooling, GSE. Cheap, easy to machine, anodizes well, and you can weld it, which you can't say for 2024 or 7075.

Then there's the odd stuff. 6013 and 7150 on newer programs. 7050 in thicker sections. 2014 and 2219 on airplanes that were designed before most of our customers were born. We chase those down too.

Material is certified to AMS-QQ-A-200 and the alloy-specific AMS specs (AMS 4152, AMS 4154, AMS 4160, AMS 4161, AMS 4166, and so on), or to ASTM B221 when the drawing calls for it. We carry the AND10133, AND10134, AND10136, and AND10138 standard shapes and can run Boeing BAC, Douglas, Lockheed, and Northrop proprietary profiles.

We also source stainless in 304, 316 and 17-4PH for galleys, lavs and hydraulic bays where aluminum corrodes. Titanium extrusions in 6Al-4V and commercially pure grades for engine and landing gear areas. Magnesium for a handful of legacy weight-critical parts. Brass, bronze and copper when the job needs conductivity or a bearing surface.

With plastics, the strength numbers are almost secondary. What matters is how the part burns. Anything in the cabin has to pass FAR 25.853, and the bigger pieces also have to meet the OSU heat release and smoke density limits. That narrows the field fast.

So cabin trim, seat and cabinet edging, window reveals, light lenses, and wire channels tend to be polycarbonate in an FAA-rated grade (Lexan F6000 and the 9600 series are the usual ones), PVC or PVC/acrylic sheet-grade alloys like Kydex and Boltaron, or one of the high-temp resins when the part sees heat or fluids: PEEK, Ultem, Radel, PPS. Outside the cabin, the rules relax, and you see nylon 6/6, Delrin, and UHMW in wear strips, guides, and rollers, and PTFE or other fluoropolymers for chafe protection and hot-zone insulation.

We match colors to interior decor specs, supply material certified to BMS, DMS and LMS numbers, and can run glass- or carbon-filled compounds when a part needs to be stiffer or static-dissipative.

Nearly every rubber extrusion on an airplane is a seal or some guard. Door and hatch seals. Window seals. Panel and fairing seals. Bulb seals, P-seals, edging, grommet strip, chafe guard, wire bundle protection, isolation channel. The profile is usually simple. The compound is where the thinking happens.

Silicone is the default for cabin and pressure seals because it works from well below zero to a few hundred degrees and doesn't set the way other rubbers do. We stock self-extinguishing and low-smoke grades that meet 25.853. If there's any chance the seal touches fuel or hydraulic fluid, that becomes fluorosilicone. Nitrile and HNBR handle oil and fuel in the wheel wells and around the engines; fluorocarbon (Viton) does the same job at higher temperatures. EPDM goes where there's ozone, weather, or Skydrol. Neoprene is the general-purpose weather seal and edging material. Use urethane when abrasion kills the part.

Most of these are available in closed-cell sponge for seals that have to close under light force. We can co-extrude dense and sponge together, put a metal carrier or fabric reinforcement inside the section, or bond a PTFE low-friction face onto one side. Specs we run to regularly: AMS 3301 through 3357 for silicone, AMS 3208 and 3209 for neoprene, AMS 3216 and 3218 for fluorocarbon, MIL-R-6855, and the OEM equivalents. Conductive and flame-retardant compounds on request.