Michigan’s Aerospace Companies Ready to Soar
Known as the home of the automotive industry, the State of Michigan is becoming a major player in the aerospace industry with representation at the Farnborough International Air Show in the U.K. last week.
Michigan was one of 20 states taking part in the USA Partnership Pavilion including more than 250 U.S. based aerospace companies. The Pure Michigan exhibit was comprised of six Michigan aerospace companies including Barron Industries, an Oakland County-based manufacturer of precision machined castings. Barron already makes metal components for commercial and military aircraft and expects to see new orders after exhibiting at the air show where aerospace companies announced $192 billion in new deals.
President/CEO Bruce Barron met with buyers from global aerospace giants including Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier and Leonardo, as well as their Tier 1 suppliers. “In response to market demand, we have expanded our production capacity for thin wall aluminum and stainless steel castings,” said Barron.
“ With our newly acquired NADCAP and GE Aviation certifications, we’re prepared to meet the increased need for safety-critical machined components.”
Recently Barron was awarded a contract to produce precision cast and machined components for the GE9X high-bypass turbofan aircraft engine under development by GE Aviation for the Boeing 777X. Barron produces critical aluminum precision components used in aircraft and defense technologies in both domestic and foreign markets including: the forward canard section for a 2,000 lb. ordinance and fuel and HVAC systems on the Boeing 767 and Apache helicopter.
The Michigan booth was sponsored by Pure Michigan which also exhibited at last year’s Paris Air Show. Last February, Pure Michigan hosted an aerospace summit which connected more than 26 aerospace companies with local suppliers.
“There is a huge supply chain base in Michigan and the best part is that there is a connection between the automotive and the aerospace industries, each tapping into the other’s resource pools”, said Andrea Garrett, Program Specialist, Development and Operations, Pure Michigan.
A recent PwC report ranks Michigan number 2 for aerospace manufacturing attractiveness based on manufacturing output, exports and labor productivity. The state ranks first for its concentration of engineers and engineering-related job growth over the past five years. Nine of the 10 largest aerospace/defense R&D firms have a presence in Michigan, and the state had nearly $4 billion in sales in the Aerospace and Defense sector in 2017, the 6th highest total sales in the Midwest.
Barron Industries is one of more than 300 Michigan businesses registered to the AS9100 aerospace quality system and more than 700 state companies are direct suppliers to the aerospace industry.
Since 1983, Barron Industries has supplied the aerospace and defense industries with performance-critical ferrous and non-ferrous investment castings, rapid prototypes, and complete assemblies. Barron provides complete turnkey product manufacturing at its vertically-integrated 65,000 square-foot facility in Oxford, Michigan. In-house services include NADCAP Certified Non-Destructive Testing, CAD engineering and CNC Machining.