Product1 publisher2 min readPublished
GKN expands New Hampshire facility, adding in-house NDT and a dedicated compressor blade cell
GKN Aerospace has begun a $16 million, 57,000 square foot addition at North Charlestown, New Hampshire, and the new work includes the inspection step for compressor blades and vanes alongside turning and surface finishing.
The Product Desk · Product desk
What happened
- GKN Aerospace has started a $16 million expansion at North Charlestown, New Hampshire, adding about 57,000 square feet and taking the site's total footprint to nearly 97,000 square feet.
- NH Business Review reported that the project strengthens the site's ties with GKN's Muncie, Indiana operation, pairing forging there with precision machining in New Hampshire.
- GKN Aerospace operates in 12 countries with about 16,000 employees across more than 30 locations, and reports global sales of £3.6 billion.
Compiled by The Product DeskSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- contradiction The same report supports two sizes for the finished plant: its own footprint numbers leave about 40,000 square feet today, so nearly 97,000 is roughly 2.4 times that, while NH Business Review called the 57,000 square feet a rough tripling.
- cost At about $281 per square foot of new space, the $16 million has to cover both the building and the process equipment inside it, and GKN carries that cost before the new capacity produces anything for a customer.
- constraint The lead-time benefit only reaches parts whose delay sits at inspection or finishing. Where machine hours are the binding step, extra floor space in New Hampshire only moves a delivery date once spindles are installed and staffed.
A compressor blade that leaves the building to be inspected waits twice, once for transport and once for the queue at the far end. Non-destructive testing is one of three capabilities GKN says it will add at North Charlestown, along with turning operations and surface finishing [5]. Turning cuts metal and finishing conditions the surface. NDT decides whether the part passes. GKN said moving more processes on site will improve efficiency and reduce lead times [6], and Tomas Lindsta, senior vice president of OE Product Solutions, said: "By bringing more manufacturing processes in-house, we can further develop our employees' skills, gain greater flexibility and respond more effectively to our customers' evolving needs as our business continues to grow" [13].
Set against the group sales GKN reports, £3.6 billion or about $4.87 billion, a $16 million project is roughly a third of one percent [15][17]. The account also says the work builds on a $16 million investment the company announced earlier this year, and it does not settle whether that is one commitment described twice or two separate ones [14].
Anyone buying blades and vanes off this site should ask GKN which operations on their own part will still leave North Charlestown after the new cell opens, and how many days each of those round trips adds today. Turning and inspection sit on opposite sides of that answer. One adds machine hours under GKN's own roof. The other closes a transport and queue gap between operations that adds days to the calendar.
The dedicated cell is for high-performance compressor blades and vanes on current and future commercial and defense engine programs [8], and M4S News reported that the investment will create new skilled jobs [10]. GKN has not published a lead-time figure, a job count or a completion date [18]. Joakim Andersson, president of Engines at GKN Aerospace, said the investment "will help us grow our capacity in the U.S. as demand from our engine customers continues to rise" [11].
What to watch
- Whether GKN attaches a number of days to its lead-time claim, or a headcount to the new skilled jobs, when the cell opens.
- Whether the $16 million turns out to be the same money announced earlier in the year or a second tranche on top of it.
- Which commercial and defense engine programs the compressor blade and vane cell is qualified to supply.