Beaumont Machine Provides SpaceX Small Hole EDM with Robotic Articulation

Beaumont Machine (Batavia, Ohio) has been supplying the aerospace industry Fast Hole and Small Hole EDM (Electrical Discharge Machines) for over 20 years, in service to market leaders such as Lockheed Martin, Pratt & Whitney and General Electric.  Those ranks expanded recently with a new small hole EDM supplied to SpaceX in Hawthorne, California.

Company president Ed Beaumont notes, “As the needs in the industry are changing, we’ve made changes to keep pace. For the past 3 years, Beaumont Machine has been working with the advanced CNC control systems from Siemens to support the real-time connection to our power supply.  This has improved our hole shape technology, breakthrough rate and overall holemaking process quality.  We just completed a project with SpaceX, using this newly developed control system in tandem with integrated large ABB robotics for positioning of the electrode.”

The new Beaumont small hole machine at SpaceX has a reach of 8’ in diameter and 8’ in height. Beaumont has built equipment as small as a phone booth and as large as this newest SpaceX collaboration.  Ed Beaumont further comments, “All our machines are built for production purposes, right here in Southwest Ohio. Our customers demand the uptime we provide as well as preventative and predictive maintenance programs with NADCAP-approved calibrations. Beaumont equipment, built for the long haul on the strength of our 22-year experience and machines operating in eight (8) countries, are still in production and still holding tight aerospace tolerances.”

Beaumont welcomes all challenges from the aerospace industry for small hole EDM and robotic articulation.