Ascent Aerospace

Ascent Aerospace makes tooling and automated assembly systems for aircraft and space vehicles from its base in Macomb, Michigan. It serves the commercial aerospace, defense and space industries from plants and offices in the USA, Europe and Japan.

The company says it is the largest aerospace tooling supplier in the world. Its tooling range includes mold tooling, assembly tooling, facility tooling, trim and drill fixtures and intelligent tooling. It also makes large tools with additive manufacturing, using a large-format 3D printing machine for layup molds, masters and vacuum holding fixtures.

Ascent also builds automation. Its products include alignment systems, drill and fasten machines, part fabrication systems and automated fastening systems from its Gemcor brand. For integration work, the company builds turnkey assembly lines, with teams in Hamburg, Saint-Nazaire and Toulouse.

Its services cover the full life of a project. They include solution development, engineering, manufacturing and long-term support. The engineers can handle process design, stress analysis and controls work. Ascent has plants in Macomb and Lake Orion in Michigan and Santa Ana in California. It also has offices in Bothell, Washington, Buffalo, New York, Hamburg, Nagoya, Broughton in the UK, Saint-Nazaire and Toulouse.

Ascent says its tooling and automation have supported every major commercial aircraft program in the world. Defense contractors use it for fixed-wing and rotary aircraft, and space firms use it to build launch vehicles and rockets. It has won supplier awards from Lockheed Martin for F-35 work stands, from Sikorsky for CH-148 Cyclone tooling and from Airbus for work on the A350, A380 and Beluga XL.

The company grew from several older firms. Gemcor began making automated fastening systems in 1937. Odyssey Industries was set up in 1984, Global Tooling Systems in 1995 and Brown Aerospace in 2000. American Industrial Partners later joined these companies and the group became Ascent Aerospace. Its quality system meets AS9100 and ISO 9001 standards.

Services

• Mold tooling
• Assembly tooling
• Facility tooling
• Trim and drill fixtures
• Additive manufacturing
• Automated drilling and fastening
• Alignment systems
• Assembly line integration
• Engineering
• Support