Innovation

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Tube profiling

TLAC have the only cold cutting tube profiling machine in the UK. With this machine we can cut to amazing accuracy profiles and features on tube product ranging from ¼” through to 2” diameter tube with wall thicknesses ranging from 0.025” through to .125” and materials from aluminium through to tough 4130 aircraft grade Chrome Moly steel and stainless steel. Working from models derived from 3D CAD systems TLAC can machine both ends of the tube holding a profile accuracy of 0.005” a tolerance on length to within 0.005” per meter and an angular tolerance of 0.5 degrees between the profile cut on either end. So accurate is the tube profiling that some customers have actually had to remake their jigs based on the profiled tubes as they were significantly incorrect. The benefit with the cold cutting process means that there is no contaminants incorporated into the material as you would find with laser or plasma cutting, so the weld is stronger and the preparation time significantly reduced.

TLAC can undertake tube profiling for airframes, go karts, motorcycles and race cars with ease along with specialist stainless tubular structures for marine use.

Welding

Cold Arc welding, by investing in the latest synergic software driven MIG welding systems TLAC can now achieve repeatable high penetration, low profile fillet welds in thin wall 4130 aircraft grade Chrome Moly tube with minimum heat penetration. Minimising the amount of heat penetration in the weld ensures that maximum strength is retained both in and around the local area of the weld. The welding system makes changes to the parameters of the machine settings are the rate of 100hz ensuring optimum gas flow, welding voltage and amps are in the correct ratio for the gun distance and speed.

Design

TLAC have adopted Solidworks as its design platform and is progressively transferring over all its aircraft types. Solidworks is an industry standard which offers intuitive 3D design features with built in intelligence. its structure enables drawings to be created quickly and easily from solid models, in fact so flexible is the software that drawing changes actually relate to the solid model that the drawing was created from and it too is updated.