Mark Semple, managing director of Moyola Precision Engineering of Castledawson, County Londonderry in Northern Ireland, gave AIN a tour of the company’s recently expanded factory by the Moyola River (Lord Moyola was the last prime minister of Northern Ireland before 1922, when it became part of the UK).
Semple said one of Moyola’s main contracts is on the Lockheed Martin F-35 (Joint Strike Fighter) program, which is why entering its facilities requires certain formalities to comply with U.S. ITAR regulations. It also machines parts for the Airbus A400M airlifter (wingtip ribs), Eurofighter, and some Gulfstream business jets.
Semple said it’s a family business, owned by him and his father, who started it in 1976. It moved to Castledawson in 1982 and now also has a 35,000-sq-ft plant in nearby Magherafelt.
On the airliner side, a 2017 order for C Series wing ribs (300) was a major contract (it does two-thirds of all C Series ribs), along with the fixed trailing edge for the Airbus A350, and it produces A350 fuel covers and A380 retrofit flap fairings. It has also been designated as a preferred supplier for the likes of MBDA and Thales. According to Semple, such work “probably” means Bombardier no longer accounts for the majority of its work.
Top of Semple’s in-tray is SC21, the ADS supply chain excellence program. “We hope to have Gold by Farnborough,” said Semple, “We would be the first in the UK.” He recognized that Moyola may be one of two to get this honor, with Denroy Plastics also applying.
“In 2018 we developed the M3 [M-cubed] manufacturing system,” he said. He pointed out five-axis machine tools each one of which entailed in the region of £250,000 (US$330,520) in investment. He estimates that in total Moyola has £18 million (US$24 million) worth of machine tools, “£5 million [US$6.6 million] in the last three to four years.”
Noting the company’s specialization in machining metal, he said, “Composites are not the answer to everything.” Also, as aluminum “expands and contracts, titanium often works better with composites.” He added that titanium isn’t rare, “It’s just expensive,” especially to machine, as something taking 40 minutes with an aluminum alloy can take seven hours with titanium alloy.
“We do a lot of R&D to make sure we’re the best in the world at what we do,” said Semple, who added training is also a high priority. In fact, apprentices do National Vocational Qualifications with one day a week spent in college. Along with machine operators, it also has design engineers, and 12 on its CAD team. “This is the biggest in Northern Ireland aerospace,” said Semple, and accounts for around 10 percent of Moyola’s workforce. “They’ve all done their apprenticeships here,” he added.