Machina Labs Wins Contract from US Air Force

Machina Labs Awarded Contract by U.S. Air Force Machina Labs announced that the United States Air Force (USAF) has provided the company with USD 1.6 million in funding to advance and accelerate the development of robotic technology for the manufacturing of metal tooling for high-ratio composite production. Experts anticipate increased vehicle production compared to current rates, as the aerospace industry fleet is projected to reach approximately 60,000 aircraft within the next 20 years. In military applications, a similar trend toward balancing mission agility, sustainment and vehicle cost has enabled the development of aircraft concepts such as Low-Cost Autonomous Collaborative Platforms (ACP), which operate under higher tolerance for limited service life and vehicle loss during operations. Machina Labs' AFWERX Tactical Funding Increase (TACFI) contract will focus on metal tooling for rapid-cure, out-of-autoclave (OOA) composite processes. In a previous contract executed with the Air Force Research Laboratory, Machina Labs demonstrated that its tooling maintains vacuum integrity, remains dimensionally stable after thermal stabilization, and exhibits greater thermal sensitivity than conventional metal tooling. Source