AEROSPACE and defence clients have welcomed the news that precision manufacturing company Shearline has extended its capability with the acquisition of the building and equipment of Last Engineering, and the hiring of some of its staff. The company will b

AEROSPACE and defence clients have welcomed the news that precision manufacturing company Shearline has extended its capability with the acquisition of the building and equipment of Last Engineering, and the hiring of some of its staff. The company will be uniquely positioned to offer rapid prototyping and manufacture for a much wider size range of components in materials from lightweight alloys through to steels.

The capabilities of the two companies are highly complementary as Charles Maltby, technical and commercial director of Shearline explains.

"Shearline's work is typically for CNC machined components that fit in a shoe-box. We now have the ability to accurately manufacture on a much larger scale, with 5-axis machines able to handle parts up to 700mm cubed and 3-axis to 900mm cubed. For one of our MoD clients this now means we can do the whole job in house.

"We are finding that many of Last Engineering's autosports clients have a need for components of a smaller size, which we will now also be able to offer them from the existing Shearline facilities."

Shearline will keep the Last Engineering premises and it will become a dedicated division of Shearline covering activities for a range of sectors. It will focus on large-scale precision engineering of infrastructure components for rotary and fixed wing aircraft, vehicle gearbox housings, and wind turbine parts in particular. Staff joining from Last Engineering bring a wealth of experience complementing Shearline's existing strengths in handling aluminium alloys, steel, ceramics and a range of specialist materials.

"Shearline and Last Engineering have a lot of synergy, and it is exciting to bring the two sets of capabilities together in this way," comments Charles. "We are working hard to retain former Last Engineering clients, and our first project is for a bus, which just shows the scale we are now working on"

Shearline offers a full manufacturing service, from technical consultancy, prototyping and design-for-manufacture through to full scale production, assembly and finishing. The company has a host of industry accreditations including the BS EN 9100 quality management standard for aerospace, and ISO 14001:2004 certification for environmental management systems. The new division formed by the Last Engineering acquisitions will also operate to these high international standards.

"There are virtually no other companies in the UK which can offer the range of skills and capabilities that Shearline now has, together with our industry accreditations. We look forward to talking to new and existing clients in fields like aerospace, defence, automotive, and oil and gas."

Shearline will be at the Farnborough Airshow, from July 19-23. You can find them in Hall 1 on the WEAF stand.

For more information visit www.shearline.co.uk