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Rose Bearings 1
- Thread starter barmyarmy
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barmyarmy... Bad-news...Join the crowd...
The a REAL problem you are seeing is a worldwide shortage of aerospace quality raw material and hardware... and incredibly LONG lead-times for new parts/materials.
I work for a fairly large aerospace company, on an "aging" aircraft. we are specifying/buying large quantities of fasteners, replacement hardware Items and raw-materials for replacement part hogouts. Due to certain DoD requirements we also have a mandated "buy-American" requirement [overseas sources for fabricated items are almost unacceptable, except under limited circumstances]. Talking with our purchasing agents the following trend is VERY real...
>>>Common Hardware Items [bolts, nuts, bearings, etc] lead-times are NOW 6—9—up-to-24 months [worse case for exotic parts/alloys]. Also the unit-costs have doubled, and in some cases tripled, over the previous year… and [substantial] minimum purchases are now in effect.
>>>Raw material lead times [Aluminum, steel, titanium, etc] are now 12-to-18-to-24 months... or worse for limited orders. Raw aluminum prices have gone-up at least 150%... and VHS LA steel [300M, 4340M, 4330M, etc] prices have doubled—or—tripled... and Titanium alloy costs have risen almost 400% in one year. Obviously what affects US also affects our hardware or processor-vendors...
I understand that China and India are now purchasing raw metallic materials, and oil, at a voracious rate to feed their developing economies... so much so that ore-producers, refiners and suppliers are hard pressed to keep-up with the world-wide-demand. As such the aerospace world is feeling a pinch, due to “relatively small” purchase quantities of "highly specialized materials".
On-the-other-hand… a report by AIA confirmed that Boeing and Airbus are putting a real strain on composite materials producers... and that non-aerospace fabricators… especially sporting-goods fabricators are seeing sources dry-up and prices soar. Expect typical items such as graphite-epoxy golf-club shafts or bike frames to double or triple in cost in the next couple of years… and that includes the $$$s for exotic CRES or Ti alloys for fittings and attachments!!!!
Good-luck finding hardware sources that aren’t being sucked-dry… especially for specialty parts/items.
Regards, Wil Taylor
The a REAL problem you are seeing is a worldwide shortage of aerospace quality raw material and hardware... and incredibly LONG lead-times for new parts/materials.
I work for a fairly large aerospace company, on an "aging" aircraft. we are specifying/buying large quantities of fasteners, replacement hardware Items and raw-materials for replacement part hogouts. Due to certain DoD requirements we also have a mandated "buy-American" requirement [overseas sources for fabricated items are almost unacceptable, except under limited circumstances]. Talking with our purchasing agents the following trend is VERY real...
>>>Common Hardware Items [bolts, nuts, bearings, etc] lead-times are NOW 6—9—up-to-24 months [worse case for exotic parts/alloys]. Also the unit-costs have doubled, and in some cases tripled, over the previous year… and [substantial] minimum purchases are now in effect.
>>>Raw material lead times [Aluminum, steel, titanium, etc] are now 12-to-18-to-24 months... or worse for limited orders. Raw aluminum prices have gone-up at least 150%... and VHS LA steel [300M, 4340M, 4330M, etc] prices have doubled—or—tripled... and Titanium alloy costs have risen almost 400% in one year. Obviously what affects US also affects our hardware or processor-vendors...
I understand that China and India are now purchasing raw metallic materials, and oil, at a voracious rate to feed their developing economies... so much so that ore-producers, refiners and suppliers are hard pressed to keep-up with the world-wide-demand. As such the aerospace world is feeling a pinch, due to “relatively small” purchase quantities of "highly specialized materials".
On-the-other-hand… a report by AIA confirmed that Boeing and Airbus are putting a real strain on composite materials producers... and that non-aerospace fabricators… especially sporting-goods fabricators are seeing sources dry-up and prices soar. Expect typical items such as graphite-epoxy golf-club shafts or bike frames to double or triple in cost in the next couple of years… and that includes the $$$s for exotic CRES or Ti alloys for fittings and attachments!!!!
Good-luck finding hardware sources that aren’t being sucked-dry… especially for specialty parts/items.
Regards, Wil Taylor
Not only is it hardware but subassembly components. I worked on a project developing a lubrication system for an APU on the JSF. We were buying a critical part from Dunlop Fluid Systems in the UK. They jerked us around on part quality, delivery, and price. Their reasoning was there resources were diverted to a UK troop transport cargo plane. WTF! I guess a purchasing contract means nothing to some companies
Best Regards,
Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)
Never argue with an idiot. They'll bring you down to their level and beat you with experience every time.
Best Regards,
Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)
Never argue with an idiot. They'll bring you down to their level and beat you with experience every time.
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