Cold expansion products in Commercial Aerospace Industry

Fatigue Technology (FTI) officially entered the commercial aerospace industry in 1969 when it helped pioneer the cold expansion process with the Boeing Company. Since then, FTI has engineered cold expansion based applications in support of major OEMs and MROs across the globe including Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, Bell, and Sikorsky. The FTI split sleeve cold expansion process specification is generally accepted as the industry standard.

As the industry experiences tremendous growth, FTI continues to refine installation methods to help drive down manufacturing time and costs. FTI ForceMate bushings, ForceTec rivetless nut plates, FleXmate fluid fittings, and GromEx composite liners are all installed efficiently, permanently, and in a fraction of the time when compared to alternatives.

FTI products can be installed during initial production or rework - depending on the application. By installing these solutions into an aircraft structure or component early, inspection cycles can be extended which in turn reduces downtime for aircraft operators, weight savings can be captured, and numerous structural enhancement benefits can be achieved. In addition to standard metallic structures, FTI products have been optimized for new high strength alloys, composites, and hybrid structures.