Lockheed Martin (LM) has recently increased the existing tooling contracts it has placed with Australian based Marand Precision Engineering for additional F-35 Lightning II composite cure and trim tooling.

Marand Precision Engineering won its first F-35 tooling orders in late 2005 and has continued to work closely with and win the confidence of Lockheed Martin’s Senior Airframe Integrated Product Team (IPT) members. Marand has continued to secured additional orders for the Design and Manufacture of an increasing number of cure and trim tools used in the manufacture of very accurate carbon fibre composite components for the aircrafts various Control Surfaces, Edges, Seals and Bull Nose components.

This now brings the total number of tools that Lockheed Martin has directly ordered from Marand, as their only Australian prime contractor to 155 tools. Some of these tools have already been delivered to the USA. The tools are manufactured from various materials and are of a small, medium and large size and range in complexity.

Marand undertakes the design and finite element analysis in-house using CATIA V4 & V5. Marand’s innovative design approach and a DFM (Design For Manufacture) philosophy has removed the requirement for individual fixturing for each component type by standardisation and commonality. This and other Marand innovations has and will continue to deliver substantial cost saving to all F-35 customers who chose to draw on Marand’s expertise.

Background

Established in 1969, Marand Precision Engineering is a proven and successful Tier 1/Prime Contractor to the global Aerospace, Automotive and Rail sectors supplying Innovative Production, Automated and Tooling Solutions.

Marand is Australia’s largest and longest continuously operating aerospace tooling company, privately owned and operated and located in Melbourne, Victoria. Marand has been involved in the F-35 program since early 2002 and was one of the very first Australian companies to win contracts for the SDD phase.

Today Marand is playing an important and multi-faceted role in supporting the F-35 program. As one of the programs Global Supplier Chain partners, Marand can proudly boast in having Lockheed Martin Fort Worth, Texas and Palmdale, California, USA as a highly valued and satisfied repeat customer.

Marand has to date won multiple contracts to supply Lockheed Martin with a range of highly engineered and complex precision equipment. Since winning its first JSF contract in 2003, Marand has continued to be recognised for its “Best Value” and highly innovative solutions and has achieved a string of firsts for Australia and as a global supplier to the F-35 program by being:

  • The first company in the world to be awarded a contract to design and manufacture Ground Support Equipment for Lockheed Martin.
  • The first Australian company to be awarded a contract to design and manufacture Cure and Trim Tooling for the manufacture of composite conventional edges.
  • The first Australian company to be awarded a contract to demonstrate a number of unique High Accuracy Automated Robotic technologies.