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Marshall Hagen, Sales and Business Development ManagerIn 2008, Janicki Industries was asked to help machine large composite skins for the F35 Joint Strike Fighter, a program that was just starting into LRIP. Within two years, Janicki Industries invested in a stand-alone facility in Layton, Utah, to act as its ‘Machining Services’ division.
Today, Janicki Industries Utah has four large Janicki-built 5-axis machining centers and another 5-axis Zimmerman FZ40 unit retrofitted with Janicki controls and software. With around 120 employees, including 30 degreed engineers, Janicki Industries Utah specializes in the largest and most complex machined composite and aluminum parts, servicing the defense, commercial aerospace, space exploration, and other emerging market customers. “Janicki Industries’s engineering team is focusing on the future of complex machining and factory automation, with an emphasis on process control and Information of Things (IOT)–our goal is to continue to be a world-class machining services supplier, leveraging next-generation technologies to offer unrivalled value,” says Marshall Hagen, the Sales & Business Development Manager at Janicki Industries Utah.
Focused on the Advanced Materials and Composite Parts
When it comes to the CNC Machining space today, companies face two major challenges: cost and complexity. As new competitors enter the market to take on established players, cost challenges influence Billions of dollars in private market spending, from commercial airlines to private launch companies. Further, complexity is driven primarily from the growth in advanced computer-aided manufacturing and drive to reduce weight (tangentially related to costs). For example, space launch aluminum structures previously built with multiple parts are now being designed as monolithic pieces that require advanced forming and machining. Janicki Industries is sensitive to these cost demands and offers a unique engineering approach to machining.
Over the past six years, its track record showcases some of the largest and most complex structures built across any industry.
Being focused on the advanced materials and composite parts markets, Janicki Industries as a whole continues to design and build large Invar, carbon-fiber, and other metallic tooling systems for composite parts producers. “As these structures become larger and more complex, our in-house designed and built 5-axis machines are used to both machine the highly accurate tools, but also the parts that come off those tools,” mentions Hagen. With today’s composite structures sometimes exceeding 100 feet in length, Janicki Industries’ large machining envelopes are positioned to offer a rare vertically integrated value stream to produce advanced composite parts. In addition to the large 5-axis machines in Utah, Janicki’s primary manufacturing campus in Sedro Woolley, Washington has 6 large Janicki 5-axis machines, the two largest with envelopes of 100 ft x 20 ft x 8 ft. Leveraging the engineering and automation resources across both sites allows Janicki to continue to build new capabilities into their production processes.
By helping many such clients with its focus on technology and automated controls, Janicki has been leading the charge in large-scale 5-axis machining. From the in-house built machines that offer unparalleled precision over large envelopes, to the advanced machining simulations, the company drives to guarantee part accuracy before cutting. Janicki Industries is always focused on improving their capabilities and approach to aerospace’s most challenging machining needs. “When a problem does arise, the team who designed the mill component or wrote the automation code works for us, and can be available right away to troubleshoot. No waiting for overseas help, or techs to fly in; we hold the keys to our own uptime,” comments Hagen.
One-Stop-Shop for High-Precision Parts and Tooling
Since Janicki Industries is vertically integrated to support the design/build of large tools and machining services, there have been countless projects where the company provided customers with concurrent design/build of tooling while NC Programming is being worked, all under one roof. “Concurrent scheduling and being in control over all aspects of the start-up on development work is a huge value-adder to our customer base, and one that we continue to leverage over the competition,” states Hagen. In addition to concurrent manufacturing, Janicki often utilizes their diverse group of internal resources to engineer unique solutions for Customers’ biggest challenges. For instance, Janicki Industries helped a customer build a part made out of multiple co-cured composite structures. The engineering requirements for many machined features referenced back to as-built surfaces, so programming to the digital model was not a viable solution. Janicki Industries’ automation team developed a new scanning routine that leveraged the company’s extensive use of Leica laser equipment to build a real-time map of multiple as-built surfaces and compensated the machine paths to meet the complex engineering requirements. This automated scan/machine routine allowed Janicki to successfully produce these structures consistently, from unit to unit, with low risk.
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As structures become larger and more complex, our in-house designed and built 5-axis machines are used to both machine the highly accurate tools, but also the parts that come off those tools
By helping many such clients with its focus on technology and automated controls, Janicki has been leading the charge in large-scale 5-axis machining. From the in-house built machines that offer unparalleled precision over large envelopes, to the advanced machining simulations, the company drives to guarantee part accuracy before cutting. Janicki Industries is always focused on improving their capabilities and approach to aerospace’s most challenging machining needs. “When a problem does arise, the team who designed the mill component or wrote the automation code works for us, and can be available right away to troubleshoot. No waiting for overseas help, or techs to fly in; we hold the keys to our own uptime,” comments Hagen.
The Future Holds Great Promise
Janicki Industries continually invests in its capital infrastructure and technologies. Recently they opened a new 90,000 square-foot composites manufacturing facility in Hamilton, WA. The facility opened with state-of-the-art non-destructive inspection equipment, new 5-axis CNC machines, and NADCAP-approved cleanroom space. In addition to the capital investments, Janicki Industries’ R&D lab is always pushing the boundaries on materials and manufacturing processes for composites. The company has partnered with resin manufacturers to blend proprietary tooling resin systems. These technology investments give Janicki Industries additional options to their customers that they can’t get anywhere else.
Since the Janicki Utah site opened in 2011 as the stand-alone ‘Machining Services’ division, there has been one major expansion in 2017 after rapid onboarding of projects doubled its headcount over an 18-month period. Today, the Utah business is on a much more comfortable course but is starting to feel the constraint of 10 years of continued growth. Its owners have signed a land-purchase agreement, and in 2022 Janicki Utah will be adding an additional 40,000 square feet of space to their existing 100,000 footprint. Additionally, a new Janicki-built machine will be constructed for commissioning in 2023, with a largemill envelope of 20ft x 20ft to accommodate the surge in large launch structures in the commercial space market.
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Janicki Industries
Company
Janicki Industries
Management
Marshall Hagen, Sales and Business Development Manager
Description
Janicki Industries is a privately owned, full-service engineering and manufacturing company with facilities in Washington and Utah, USA. Janicki specializes in manufacturing parts, prototypes and tools made of advanced composites and metals. Janicki is certified for fly-away composite parts. Janicki is fully capable of building your largest projects utilizing large-scale facilities, high-precision 5-Axis mills, autoclave and large annealing oven. We have deep experience in many composite systems including: syntactic putty; 160ºF machined putty; 250ºF carbon/fiberglass hybrid molds; 350ºF Carbon tools; and 350ºF Invar and Steel molds. This 100% in-house capability for the total tooling and parts solution enables a one-stop shop for customers
Janicki Industries News
Janicki Supports Saildrone Voyager Program
SEDRO-WOOLLEY, WA, UNITED STATES: CIMCON Digital Janicki, an engineering and manufacturing company, is supporting the Saildrone Voyager program with composite parts, machining and assemblies. Janicki’s extensive experience manufacturing tools and parts for the marine and autonomous vehicle industries is an excellent match for Saildrone’s revolutionary vehicles.
Saildrone, a U.S. based company, designs, manufactures and operates a fleet of the world’s most capable, proven and trusted uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs). The newest addition to the Saildrone fleet, the 33-foot Voyager, is designed for near-shore ocean mapping at depths of up to 300 meters and providing maritime domain awareness. Powered primarily by wind and solar, the Voyager can stay at sea for over six months providing real-time data without the need for a crewed support vessel.
Janicki manufactures the Voyager wing, keel and various other composite components. These technologically challenging composite and metal structures leverage Janicki’s expertise in engineering, fabrication, high-precision 5-axis milling and quality assurance. Janicki’s highly skilled teams have been working on a rapid timeline to produce and deliver parts for the expanding Voyager program.
“Janicki is proud to partner with Saildrone in their work to advance our knowledge of the marine world,” said Jeff Steensland, Vice President of Aerospace at Janicki. “Our teams are focused on Saildrone to scale their technologies and bring Voyagers into service quickly. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with such an amazing team at Saildrone.”
“Saildrone is excited to be working with a great partner like Janicki as we look to scale our capacity to meet our growing customer demand. Their expertise and know-how in the marine composites industry will ensure that high-quality components will meet the demanding challenges of the world’s oceans. I am looking forward to seeing their great products out at sea and supporting Saildrone’s vision for a healthy ocean and a safe, sustainable planet,” said Saildrone COO Mark Cuyler.
