Buckeye Shapeform Wins Contract on TOW Missile Housings
The shop is deep drawing the missile skin used to house the components that go into the TOW missile.
Posted: September 14, 2015
Buckeye Shapeform (Columbus, OH), which is experiencing a year that is heavy with military contract work, has been selected to create the missile skins for the tube-launched, optically tracked and wireless-guided missiles known as TOW missiles.
About 45 percent of the company’s work this year is comprised of military contract work, and the work on the TOW missile housing is a new job for the company, said Ken Tumblison, the president of Buckeye Shapeform, which makes customized enclosures or housings for a variety of components.
“For this contract, we are creating the missile skin, or the housing for the components that go into the TOW missile,” explained Tumblison. “We are using our deep-draw technology to get the metal forming to come within the specifications that the part demands.” The shop’s 5-axis machining capabilities allows it to create the various holes, scallops and final features demanded by the missile housing specifications. Buckeye Shapeform has also invested in the latest 3D laser scanning equipment to make sure that its housing is meeting the tight military specifications.
“There are more than 400 features in the housing, and each feature has to fall within very specific measurements,” noted Tumblison. “So we are investing in a high-tech scanner that will take an image of the part and tell the technician by virtue of the scan if all 400-plus features are within specification. And the scanner does that within 8 minutes to 10 minutes. To do that manually would take an inordinate amount of time. The preciseness of the housing is crucial, especially for military applications.”
In addition to being fast, the 3D laser scanner is highly accurate, creating about 75,000 points per second and providing ample data with which to create a 3D color map. The color map can then be pulled up on a computer and matched against the CAD model to see how well the features are matching up to the model.
TOW missiles are the preferred heavy assault, anti-armor weapons system in NATO, coalition, United Nations and peacekeeping operations throughout the world. TOW weapons systems are expected to be in service beyond 2025.
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