Composite Shop brings it all together

Today’s modern aircraft structures are increasingly made of a wide variety of strong, flexible and light-weight materials called composites. The professional maintainers of the 553rd Commodities Maintenance Squadron are composite experts supporting global power for America.   

“Composites” describes the use of two or more materials fashioned together to make a structure that retains the properties of the original materials, but is usually lighter and stronger than making the piece with a single material exclusively. These light weight, high strength materials help improve overall aircraft performance while reducing associated fuel costs.

Gerald Miller, Advanced Composite Facility chief, explains the 553rd CMMXS repairs end items for the B-1, B-52, KC-135, E-3 and E-6 aircraft. The squadron performs repairs and bonding of advanced composite materials such as graphite, Kevlar, fiberglass, aluminum honeycomb core structures, paper core structures, and metal bonding.

“We support all of the weapon systems here at Tinker and that keeps us loaded down. We run a busy two-shift operation to keep on top of the work,” Mr. Miller said.

Prior to 2015, the 553rd CMMXS composites repair functions were spread out across the nearly mile-long Bldg. 3001 and Bldg. 2211. Now, composite technicians have a consolidated 110,000 sq. ft. work area that includes a converted auto assembly line paint booth that now functions as a 300K Class clean room to facilitate composite lay-up and repair. During the demolition and renovation of Bldg. 9001, this area was originally slated to be gutted, but engineers and CMXG personnel recognized the potential value of keeping and repurposing the structure to serve as a clean room.

Currently, the hum of activity within the 553rd CMMXS centers around the ruddervator workload that supports the KC-135 Stratotanker. Ruddervators are airfoil shapes attached to either side of the high-speed air-refueling boom used to transfer fuel to receivers. They allow the boom operator to “fly” it in to position with precision at varying speeds from 190 knots, for slow flight aircraft such as Special Operations C-130s, up to a max placarded speed of 350 knots, which was used when refueling SR-71 Blackbird aircraft.

Brian Lawson, 533rd CMMXS Manufacturing and Repair Squadron director, said despite the challenges of sustaining an aging aircraft like the KC-135, he and his team are working to deliver more reliable products to the warfighter by employing “Art of the Possible” principles to unleash innovation and increase throughput. Ruddervators are a critical asset not only to the USAF tanker fleet, but also to the larger supply chain that supports American allies who also fly the KC-135, including France, Turkey, Singapore, and Chile.

To improve the repair of these critical assets, Mr. Lawson notes there is an initiative to move from simply repairing old, worn-out ruddervators to remanufacturing the items with brand new honeycomb cores. Remanufacturing helps improve repair velocity and cost effectiveness, while eliminating waste.

“Remanufacturing allows us to improve first-pass performance, while simultaneously reducing cost,” Mr. Lawson said. “This is the essence of delivering Cost Effective Readiness for the warfighter utilizing continuous process improvement.”    

The 553rd CMMXS is made up of a skilled workforce of more than 100 people working in four sections across a two-shift operation. The composite section has a diverse workforce, of which nearly 45 percent are veterans. The craftsmen enter as WG-5 mechanics and work their way up to WG-10 journeymen, Mr. Miller explains. There are a few higher grade employees in unique specialties such as those who make molds (WG-14s) and pattern makers.

The 553rd CMMXS also does composite repair work on paper core nose-cones for KC-135 aircraft, leading and trailing edges for B-1B bombers, and lots of aluminum honeycomb replacement and bonding for multiple types of aircraft. Skills like these are in high demand across the aviation and automotive industries, so recruiting and keeping employees here is important to the enterprise overall.

“Workforce morale is great!” Mr. Lawson said.  “We have invested a lot of time in our existing workforce and focusing training in new employees to the Art of the Possible concepts and the CMXG ‘Road to’ Goals. We want everyone from the shop floor up to understand where they fit in and emphasize to them that we need their good ideas and involvement to suggest ways to improve the process.”

Expertise in composite repair is in high demand at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex today with new workloads projected to come with the Boeing KC-46, which has significant portions of the aircraft made from composites.  This offers a unique and challenging opportunity for the current and future workforce.