OREANDA-NEWS. The Manufacturing Leadership Council recognized Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) with four awards in three manufacturing categories.

Now in its 12th year, the Manufacturing Leadership Awards honor manufacturing companies and individual manufacturing leaders that are shaping the future of global manufacturing.

“Our employees work tirelessly to field improved processes in manufacturing technology, all in an effort to reduce costs and improve quality, while using state of the art tools,” said Joe Rappisi, vice president for Production Operations at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. “It is an honor to receive these awards in manufacturing and technology.”

Lockheed Martin’s Automated Drilling and Fastening Systems Integration using Reverse Engineering initiative was recognized in the Innovative Process Leadership category and, as the highest scoring entry in the category, earned the High Achiever Award.

With over one million fasteners on the C-130 airframe, the initiative uses structured light scanning as the key enabler for rapidly generating and developing three dimensional models of the “as-built” airframe components to be used in programming and simulation of the new automated systems. The structured light scanning allowed the team to gather detailed definition of the large assemblies that were being automated leading to time efficiencies across all systems.

In the Engineering and Production Technology Leadership category, Lockheed Martin was recognized for its Laser Ablation of F-35 Structure for Nutplates. Adhesive bonding laser ablation is the new manufacturing technology to replace the legacy bonded nutplate surface preparation process and enables the mechanics building the F-35 to complete installation in less time with increased quality.

Next Generation Advanced Metrology and Measurement Systems development encompasses two different technologies related to advanced metrology and measurement systems, and was recognized in the Innovative Process Leadership category. The structured light scanning and projection system developed to aid in the measurement and sanding of F-35 inlet coatings features the ability to use scans before and after the application of coatings to calculate profile thickness measurements. The terahertz coating thickness measurement system is used to interrogate thickness of an entire coating stack-up providing in-tolerance and out-of-tolerance measurements for each layer in the stack up.