BAE Systems Australia Ltd ordered the new machining centre BTP 5000/2 by Swiss Starrag AG for producing 20,000 titanium components for the vertical tail fin on the US fighter JSF F35 Lightning II, over the next 20 years, at their factory in the southern Australian city of Adelaide.

According to Starrag, the Australian subsidiary of the British corporate group has purchased the first machine in the southern hemisphere that has been specially developed for high-productivity machining of very long and complex titanium components.

As said, the factory in Edinburgh Parks (South Australia) will be making 722 component assemblies each containing 30 different parts. The stresses placed on these four meter long components, which are up to 80 centimeters wide, and just 50 millimeters thick, are great: the very complex elements have to be machined to an accuracy of 30 thousands of a millimeter i.e. half a hair’s breath.

David Allot, Chief Executive of BAE Systems Australia said: “The new machine, together with our highly skilled and qualified staff, will help us to obtain new orders from the aviation and other industries, and from future defence projects.”

The BTP 5000/2 weighs around as much as 60 elephants and required 23 containers for its journey to Australia, says Starrag.

Starrag Group is a global technology leader in manufacturing high-precision machine tools for milling, turning, boring and grinding of small, mid-sized and large workpieces of metallic and composite materials.